Friday, July 16, 2010

It's time for David Blair-Loy to stop mincing around and sue Southwestern College, already

Who's side is he really on? David Loy discusses lawsuits spearheaded by other chapters of the ACLU at Thomas Jefferson School of Law on Aug. 24, 2011.

UPDATE FEB. 2012: It's beginning to be clear that San Diego ACLU's David Loy is not a big fan of free speech about what's really going on in public schools.

See other new posts re David Loy and earlier posts under his former name of David Blair-Loy.

UPDATE: July 22, 2010

I am more concerned than ever about the motivations of local ACLU head counsel David Blair-Loy. He seems deeply concerned with his own career, as evidenced by the effort he must have put in to get busy lawyers to participate in the Daily Transcript's yearly opportunity for lawyers to promote themselves.

The Daily Transcript does not evaluate the lawyers it chooses as "Top Lawyers" of the year; there is no panel of experts making the choice. Nor do all the lawyers in town participate in the vote.

Instead, the voters select themselves. To win, a lawyer has to get his pals to send in ballots. (There is even a section for insurance lawyers.) The Daily Transcript seems to be promoting itself by exploiting lawyers who feel the need to promote themselves. The most highly regarded lawyers do not seem to participate in this contest.

David Blair-Loy has exerted himself mightily for two years in a row to become one of the many "winners" of this contest.

See all ACLU posts.
See all Southwestern College posts.

David Blair-Loy, legal counsel for the San Diego ACLU, gets along too well with school attorneys. He even got an award from the bar association for "high civility" in dealing with them, and with other attorneys.

But the situation at Southwestern has gone on long enough. It's time to stop writing letters to Jonathan Pearl and Raj Chopra, and to take some action.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ummm, you might not want to rag on the folks who are actually taking on this ridiculous policy and administration. The legal process is long and cautious. You generally don't want your lawyers to be shooting from the hip.

Maura Larkins said...

I don't think David Blair-Loy is going to sue Southwestern College as a result of something I say. I have my doubts that he intends to sue at all. He's terribly civil to school attorneys. But Blair-Loy himself obviously thinks eight months is enough. Why would suing after eight months be "shooting from the hip"? You've got to wonder if Blair-Loy and school attorneys are hoping to make some sort of compromise: Blair-Loy looks the other way regarding other violations of the constitution by local school attorneys, and in return, the school attorneys change the Southwestern free speech policy.