While most criminal defense lawyers studiously avoid anything bearing the name “Harvard” as a matter of personal choice, I found it impossible to ignore this post by David Bernstein over at Volokh about a student note in the (hushed tone) Harvard Law Review entitled Never Again Should a People Starve in a World of Plenty.

Described as “bizarre”, Bernstein notes that “[i]f there is any traditional legal analysis in this Note, it’s not obvious (though I admit that I didn’t read the entire thing).”  The note, by HLS student Phil Telfeyan, is a passion play on morality versus justice set within the wealthiest University in the world.

If Bernstein’s damnation of this note seems harsh, it’s nothing.  The comments to the post rip the author to shreds.  The readers are offended, outraged and predict the fall of Harvard Law School as a direct result of the publication of this screed for the poor.  Who is this sanctimonious punk to litter HLR with this pap?  How dare he besmirch the history and tradition of HLR with his political rant? 

Granted, Harvard Law Review is generally considered a source for thoughtful legal analysis, and this polemic does not quite fill that niche.  Also granted, Phil is an “angry young man” who has yet to realize that his morality versus justice views are not exactly novel. 

But the depth of anger and outrage against this law student was shocking.  If the commenters sought to express their disgust toward this young man and HLR for having published his Note, the harshness of their attack and lack of any interest in what purpose or benefit could be derived from it was worse.

One of the most disturbing things raised with some regularity about young people today is their lack of social conscience.  This third MTV generation is lazy, self-absorbed and grossly materialistic, we often note.  Well, here’s one young man who is not.  Yes, he is sanctimonious, but aren’t all angry young men?  Would they have felt better if his Note was about vicarious liability of Ferrari ownership instead of sacrificing a Ferrari to save the life of a little girl?

Here was a young man with a strong belief, and an opportunity to express his strong belief in a national platform of some recognition.  Harvard Law Review!  For Telfeyan, how much better could the soapbox get?  Can anyone blame him for using this opportunity to express his strongly held belief that our resort to justice at the expense of morality was an inexcusable disgrace? 

And so, the alleged grown-ups were outraged.  The alleged grown-ups are always outraged when some punk kid tells us what we already know, even if we don’t adhere to a moral path with much regularity.  There could have been a swelling of chests, a pride in the fact that some kid took a wild-eyed chance to promote a social agenda that helps others.  Even libertarians aren’t inherently against morality, though giving up the Ferrari (which model, some asked themselves) might have caused a true dilemma.

But what of the vaunted Harvard Law Review’s decision to publish this rant?   It wasn’t legal analysis, the outraged grown-ups screamed.  How dare they sully this sanctum sanctorum of intellectual integrity.  They could have used the pages to deconstruct truly important legal questions, like whether Indiana Jones’ rights were violated during his interview with F.B.I. agents.

Whether Phil Telfeyan stood on a soap box in Harvard Yard, or published in Harvard Law Review, isn’t nearly as important as the fact that we need the next generation of people who care about something other than themselves, their Biglaw job and their eventual Ferrari.  It warms my heart to know that there is a Phil Telfeyan waiting in the wings to fill the shoes of social activists who came before him. 

And the commenters to Bernstein’s post, from former HLR editors to Biglaw pretenders, your castigation of this Note and personal attacks on its author reveal only how shallow and myopic you are.  There is a disgrace to be found here, and it is your intolerance of anything that would defile your Bible, the Harvard Law Review.  What a terrible shame that all that intellectual effort was put into beating up on this punk kid instead of doing something to help someone.