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A community of progressive law teachers working for justice, diversity, and academic excellence
For the Media
For the Media
SALT is a community of progressive law teachers working for justice, diversity, and academic excellence.
Since 1973, SALT has worked to
• Make the legal profession more inclusive
• Enhance the quality of legal education
• Extend the power of law to underserved individuals and communities
SALT in the News:
SALT Issues Society of American Law Teachers Statement on Investigation and Prosecution of Promoters of the Use of Torture, May 5, 2008
Disappearing Act, Minority enrollment is at a 15 year low, The National Jurist, March 2008
SALT Hires first Norman Dorsen Fellow, dated March 19, 2008, announcing the hire of first fellow to assist SALT co-president Margaret Martin Barry
SALT Workshop on Local Immigration Ordinances Broadcast on WBAI
Governance: Guided by a thirty-member board of governors, with two co-presidents, Margaret Martin Barry, Catholic University Columbus School of Law and Deborah Waire Post, Touro College, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center, serving a two-year term, SALT recently received a three-year capacity building grant from the Open Society Institute in order to hire paid staff to increase its visibility and influence. SALT hired Hazel Weiser, a former law professor and foundation executive, who began in mid-September 2007.
Committees: SALT operates through its committees. In addition to infra-structure and events, SALT has substantive committees that examine and analyze issues affecting legal education, admission to the bar and bench, and social justice.
• Academic Freedom—When Erwin Chemerinsky was “de-hired” as the first dean of UC Irvine Law School because he was considered “too controversial,” SALT issued a condemnation. For a fuller description of the work of the Academic Freedom Committee, click here. For access to position papers issued by the Academic Freedom Committee, click here.
• Affirmative Action— SALT has worked in conjunction with Columbia University School of Law in developing a website "Disturbing Trends in Law School Diversity" that illustrates the disturbing trend in minority law school enrollment, and is currently working through its membership in targeted states to oppose the continuing anti-affirmative action movement. SALT also testified before the ABA in support of the amendments it passed to strengthen the diversity standards used for accreditation of law schools. For a fuller description of the work of the Affirmative Action Committee, click here. For fuller access to SALT submissions, click here.
In hearings on amendments to the Higher Education Act, HR 4137, on February 7, 2008, Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH) submitted remarks that included references to the website developed by Professor Conrad Johnson. Click here for a copy of Rep. Tubbs Jones' remarks.
SALT filed a chapter in the US Human Rights Network report with the United Nations Commissioner of Human Rights contesting US compliance with the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and Benjamin Davis, Professor at University of Toledo School of Law, represented SALT in Geneva on February 21-23, 2008.
• Bar Exam—The various state bar exams have never been validated and have often been used as a way of limiting the number of attorneys practicing in a jurisdiction. SALT has consistently fought for alternatives to the bar exam so that the real skills needed to practice law are included in a graduate assessment. Now that the ABA is proposing a “bright-line” institutional bar pass rate as a condition of accreditation of law schools, the result of pressure from the Commission on Civil Rights and DOE, SALT is gathering with other legal organizations to oppose this standard. For a fuller description of the work of the Bar Exam Committee, click here. For access to the submissions by the Bar Exam Committee, click here.
• Judicial/Governmental Nominations—SALT has issued position statements opposing the nominations of judges whose actions and philosophies are repugnant to SALT ideals and has opposed the last two attorneys general appointed by the Bush administration. For access to the submissions by the Judicial/Governmental Nominations, click here.
• Katrina Project—SALT members are active in bringing law school students to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast to help residents fight for the return of their homes, schools, hospitals, and dignity. For a fuller description of the work of the Katrina Committee, click here.
• LGBT—SALT actively works to have the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in the US Armed Services removed so that gay and lesbians can join the military and serve their country with pride. For a fuller description of the work of the LGBT Committee, click here. For a fuller discussion about Gays in the Military, click here.
• Peace Post 911—Whether it’s the Patriot Act, the Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, or the use of waterboarding, SALT insists that during times of danger the United States maintains its loyalty to the rule of law. On May 5th SALT issued a Statement calling for investigations of the principals and the attorneys responsible for authorizing and justifying the use of torture on detainees.
For a fuller description of the work of the Peace Post 911 Committee, click here. For access to the submissions by the Peace Post 911 Committee, click here.
For access to SALT's statement on local ordinances that affect immigration, click here.
FAQs for the Media
WHEN WAS SALT FOUNDED AND BY WHOM?
Norman Dorsen, professor at NYU Law School, and Tom Emerson, professor at Yale Law School, conceived of the idea of SALT in 1972. Professor Dorsen, former general counsel to the ACLU and its president from 1976 to 1991, and current director of the Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Program at NYU, became SALT’s first president. He and Tom brought together an extraordinary group of law professors—Stephen Gillers, renown legal ethicist as the first executive director, with a board that included Anthony G. Amsterdam, Barbara Babcock, Derrick A. Bell, Jr., Monroe Freedman, current Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and former California Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso. At its formation, SALT had gathered 149 law professors from 69 law schools with an ambitious agenda.
WHAT WERE SALT’S INITIAL GOALS?
SALT had several main goals. The first was to encourage developments in legal education that would make curriculum, programs, and forms of instruction more responsive to current social needs. Law school pedagogy hadn’t really changed since Christopher Columbus Langdell, dean of Harvard Law School back in 1870, originated the “case method.” The early 1970s brought new waves of law school students and faculty into academies: women; African American, Puerto Rican, Latino, and other students of color; returning veterans from the Vietnam war; gays and lesbians who were open about their sexual orientation; and non-traditional students from different classes, ages, and backgrounds. SALT wanted to change the environment within law schools to encourage the participation and successful incorporation of these newcomers into the legal profession. SALT was particularly interested in reevaluating legal ethics, in the wake of the Nixon Watergate debacle, and broadening the scope of how the legal profession saw its responsibility to further social justice.
SALT also wanted to impact legislation and public policy through public statements, testimony before Congress and other governmental bodies, and papers on critical legal issues. Social change was also possible with SALT efforts through strategic litigation, grounded in scholarship and incorporated into the activism of community-based practitioners. With federal judicial appointments for life terms, SALT wanted a progressive voice to participate in the evaluation of nominees to judgeships and other governmental positions that bear on the administration of justice.
Within the academy, SALT saw a role in making sure that this new wave of law teachers and students were afforded full academic freedom and that law teachers were not unfairly treated for their activism or choices of scholarship.
HOW DOES SALT COMMENT ON PUBLIC POLICY ISSUES?
Through its committees SALT examines issues relating to inclusiveness in legal education and the profession, social justice, and the integrity of the legal system. These committees comment through position papers that are issued to policymakers, the media, SALT members, and other academics. For a full history of these position papers, open "Position Statements" and choose the area of interest. The most recent position statements are available below:
Society of American Law Teachers Statement on Investigation and Prosecution of Promoters of the Use of Torture, dated May 5, 2008
SALT Statement on the State of Emergency in Pakistan, dated November 6, 2007
SALT opposition to the nomination of Michael B. Mukasey as Attorney General, dated November 2, 2007
WHAT WERE SALT’S MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS DURING ITS FIRST TEN YEARS--1973 TO 1985?
In SALT’s formative years, its focus was three-fold: law reform, legal education, and equal access to justice. From its inception, the organization sought “ways in which law professors concerned with the social responsibility of the legal profession, the relevance of legal education to the quality of legal representation and to societal needs, and with equality of access to the profession, can work effectively.” The goal was to “do more than simply put out press releases on matters of momentary public notoriety.”
SALT published a number of significant reports and studies during this period, including its Salary Survey noting median salaries for law faculty at different levels and regions in the country; Parental Leave and Part-time Policy Study; Report on Hiring & Retention of Minority Faculty; and Report on Changes in Admissions Policies.
Conferences included SALT’s Teaching Conference and its Conference on New Law Teachers, both of which have become annual or biannual staples of SALT’s activities. Panels addressed such topics as minority hiring; tenure standards and the channeling of legal scholarship; the faculty status of clinical teachers; equality; judicial selection; and the future of legal education. For a full listing of SALT conferences, click here.
SALT issued Position Statements supporting access to justice, minority hiring, free expression, funding for Legal Services and the Council on Legal Education Opportunity (CLEO); the extension of the Voting Rights Act; and the need for minority admissions programs. Other Statements issued during these years opposed Edwin Meese as Attorney General of the United States; opposed the Omnibus Criminal Code; and called on Attorney General Edward H. Levi to take comprehensive action to address institutional crime.
SALT submitted amicus briefs including one in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke and one advocating that the Court vacate the Korematsu convictions.
WHAT WERE SALT’S MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS DURING ITS NEXT DECADE FROM THE YEARS 1986 TO 1998?
During these years, SALT continued to hold Teaching Conferences addressing bias in the classroom; the politics of academic freedom; diversity in the law school curriculum; activism in the classroom; diversity of students and faculty; and preparation of students for public interest practice. In 1988, SALT sponsored the first of its now annual Robert Cover Study Groups, which bring law professors together to study and discuss an issue pertaining to social justice. Past topics have included discussions on Proposition 209, Meritocracy and the Law School Culture, and Privilege and Power in Public Interest Advocacy. SALT sponsored many panels or entire conferences on subjects including educational testing, student and faculty diversity, reconstructing merit, and Indian law. These activities filled a void in the academy, raising SALT’s visibility and bringing to the organization large numbers of new members.
In 1997, SALT launched its Action Campaign, in response to threats to affirmative action programs such as California’s Proposition 209, the Fifth Circuit’s decision in Hopwood v. Texas, and the University of California Regents’ resolutions. The attacks on affirmative action were considered so serious and important that SALT determined that most of its resources should be used to combat them. The Action Campaign directly led to the 1998 C.A.R.E. (Communities Affirming Real Equality) March during the annual AALS meeting. Hundreds of law professors dressed in academic robes joined by lawyers and law students marched through the streets of San Francisco supporting affirmative action in higher education in California.
SALT issued Position Statements opposing the Texas Department of Public Health’s proposed AIDS quarantine policy, and opposing the nominations of Justices Rehnquist, Bork, Kennedy, and Souter to the United States Supreme Court. Other Statements supported an Association of American Law Schools’ bylaw to promote diversity of law school faculty, staff and student body; endorsed an American Bar Association Accreditation Standard designed to strengthen the prohibition against discrimination in faculty employment; encouraged the first President Bush to appoint to the Legal Services Board members committed to promoting access to justice; encouraged socially responsible investment policies by TIAA/CREF (which invests the 401(k) assets of most post-secondary educators nationwide); and supported an ABA pro-choice resolution. SALT’s Committee on Access to Justice worked with Congressional leadership on developing legislation promoting health care reforms.
SALT submitted amicus briefs in Romer v. Evans (sexual orientation discrimination); Jane L. v. Bangerter (reproductive rights); Sheff v. O’Neill (Hartford, Connecticut school desegregation); García v. Spun Steak (language discrimination in the workplace); and Lloyd v. Grella (military recruiting in high schools).
WHAT ARE SALT’S MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS DURING ITS THIRD DECADE FROM 1998 TO 2007?
Affirmative Action and Access to the Profession
No set of issues is closer to SALT’s core purpose than affirmative action and access to the profession. Law schools and the legal profession still do not reflect the diversity of our nation’s population, a reality graphically illustrated by SALT’s innovative display of jellybean jars in the exhibit hall at the 2000 annual meeting of the AALS, showing in stark terms the lack of diversity within academia. Since that time, minority enrollment has slowed to an even more alarming extent. In 2005, African American enrollment was at its lowest point since 1990. Mexican American enrollment in law school dropped over 9% in 2005 and stands at its lowest point since 1993. Conrad Johnson, SALT member and professor at Columbia Law School, developed a website "Disturbing Trends in Law School Diversity," based on data from the Law School Admissions Council, along with resources to assist in illustrating the need to encourage and support diversity in law school admissions and retention policies.
SALT’s commitment to diversity in legal education has been evident since its founding; one of the new organization’s first activities was to write an amicus brief in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. More recently, SALT was actively involved in assisting in the defense of the affirmative action programs at the University of Michigan, holding several conferences, workshops and panels on affirmative action, and preparing an amicus brief in Grutter v. Bollinger.
In 2003, SALT was active in organizing and participating in a march in Washington in support of affirmative action. The Supreme Court’s Grutter decision, narrowly upholding certain forms of affirmative action, has set the stage for SALT’s ongoing efforts in this area. In 2006, SALT developed an affirmative action best practices website designed to be used as a resource to ensure continued commitment to and implementation of affirmative action within the confines of the Supreme Court decision.
In December of 2006, SALT testified at a hearing of the Department of Education regarding the recertification of the American Bar Association as the accrediting body of American law schools. The purpose of SALT’s testimony was to defend the ABA against attacks to its diversity standards. Organizations long known for opposing affirmative action, including the Center for Equal Opportunity, the American Civil Rights Institute, and the National Association of Scholars asked the Department of Education to deny recertification to the ABA because the ABA was requiring schools to demonstrate a commitment to diversity. The thrust of SALT’s testimony was that the lack of minority enrolment in law schools has reached crisis proportions and that the ABA has acted properly in seeking to have schools pursue diversity, as permitted by Grutter.
The misuse of standardized test scores in the admissions process at many law schools continues to have a pernicious effect on the admission of students of color at many law schools. SALT is actively involved in efforts to change the law school accreditation standards of the American Bar Association to require that law schools use Law School Admission Test (LSAT) scores in compliance with the recommendations of the Law School Admissions Council, which develops and administers the test. SALT issued a statement entitled SALT on the LSAT that describes the misuse of the LSAT in law school admissions practices.
Efforts to diversify the legal profession are stymied also by the bar examination. In 1999, SALT organized a conference entitled “Reexamining the Bar Exam” which educated the profession about the extent to which the exam fails to measure competence to practice law, drives a host of questionable curricular and pedagogic decisions within law schools, and has a disparate impact on racial and ethnic minorities. In 2000, SALT testified and submitted public statements in opposition to increases in the passing (“cut”) score of the bar exam based on a critique of the methodology and the expected racial impact of an increase in cut score. In 2002, SALT prepared a major Statement on the Bar Exam which was widely disseminated to judges, bar examiners, bar leaders, and the academy and published in the Journal of Legal Education. Since 2003, through a series of panels, conferences, and workshops, SALT has led the effort to develop alternatives to the traditional bar examination that will ensure that the public is protected by licensing competent law school graduates without the discriminatory effects of the traditional bar examination.
Law Reform in the Service of Social Justice
A part of SALT’s work against discrimination is its opposition to the Solomon Amendment, which threatened law schools with loss of funding for excluding military recruiters from campus. For many years, law schools excluded recruiters in response to the military’s discrimination against gay and lesbian law students in violation of schools’ non-discrimination policies. SALT was the first organization to agree to file suit challenging the Solomon Amendment on First Amendment grounds. Although the United States Supreme Court rejected our arguments in FAIR v. Rumsfeld, SALT has repeatedly and publicly renewed its commitment to the principle of non-discrimination and its determination to accelerate the struggle to repeal the military’s discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. SALT has distributed statements to its members, published letters to the editors, and compiled materials, available on its website, for use by law schools to ameliorate the effects of the military’s presence on campus.
Through its Judicial and Governmental Nominations Committee, SALT has continued to work to ensure that nominees to the federal appellate courts are committed to ensuring justice for all citizens and residents of the United States. SALT has written numerous reports on judicial nominees which incorporate the special expertise of the legal academy, and which are provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
SALT signed amicus briefs in Lawrence v. Texas (homosexual privacy) and Boy Scouts of America v. Dale (sexual orientation discrimination) and issued Public Statements opposing an expanded immigration enforcement role for local police; opposing the Military Commissions Act and the suspension of habeas corpus; and supporting a boycott of a racially discriminatory hotel.
Legal Education
Among SALT’s regular events are the enormously popular bi-annual Teaching Conferences. The conferences provide a unique opportunity to exchange techniques, methods and ideas in settings designed by and for law professors committed to making a difference in the lives of their students. Themes for the Teaching Conference in the last few years have included “Teaching, Testing, and the Politics of Legal Education in the 21st Century” (2000), “Teaching in Crisis, Teaching about Crisis: Law, Peace and Pedagogy” (2002), “Class in the Classroom” (2004), and “Academic Freedom and Teaching Activism in the Post 9/11 World” (2006). On March 14 & 15, "Teaching for Social Change" will occur at the Thelton C. Henderson Center for Social Justice on the UC Berkeley campus at Boalt Hall.
SALT annually holds three Public Interest and Social Justice Retreats. The Robert Cover Retreat is held in New England, the Trina Grillo Retreat is held in California, and the Norman Amaker Retreat is held in the Midwest. All three retreats are named after extraordinary law professors who dedicated their lives to social justice issues. The retreats provide students, teachers, and practitioners the opportunity to educate one another on public interest issues and to forge new communities of progressive lawyers and legal academics.