by
Anna
Moneymaker/Getty
Images)
Having
watched
the
Department
of
Justice
lose
scores
of
career
prosecutors
and
reduce
itself
to
taking
applications
over
DMs
and
bringing
dance
photographers
out
of
retirement,
the
Department
of
Defense
decided
to
get
in
on
the
action
by
cutting
future
military
lawyers
off
from
the
country’s
best
law
schools.
You
could
say
the
DOD
saw
the
DOJ
become
a
national
laughing
stock
of
legal
incompetence
and
said,
“hold
my
beer,”
except
you
can’t
imagine
Secretary
of
Defense
Pete
Hegseth
putting
down
a
beer
that
easily.
Continuing
the
DOD’s
performative
anti-intellectual
purge
—
which
began
with
its
public
break
with
Harvard
University
—
the
Pentagon
has
informed
active-duty
service
members
that
over
30
elite
universities
are
now
deemed
“moderate
to
high
risk”
and
therefore
ineligible
for
DOD
tuition
assistance
programs.
An
email
sent
to
Funded
Legal
Education
Program
and
Unfunded
Legal
Education
Program
candidates
from
the
Judge
Advocate
Recruiting
Office
informed
the
FLEP
candidates
—
who
receive
funding
for
their
education
from
the
DOD
—
that
if
they
have
applied
or
been
accepted
by
any
of
the
schools
on
the
list,
they
must
withdraw
their
applications
and
reject
their
admissions.
As
the
almost
assuredly
flustered
JAG
officials
note,
candidates
need
to
do
this
immediately
because
“we
know
that
some
application
deadlines
have
passed.”
UFLEP
candidates
—
who
pay
out
of
pocket
for
school
while
remaining
active
duty
—
are
not
being
ordered
to
immediately
withdraw,
but
are
strongly
encouraged
to
do
so.
A
screenshot
posted
online
by
@CounterIntel
lays
out
the
list,
which
is
limited
to
private
institutions.
The
email
informs
candidates
that
a
list
of
banned
public
schools
will
follow…
even
further
beyond
application
drop
dead
dates:
Tough
break
for
Brown
and
Princeton
who
have
pissed
off
the
administration
so
much
that
it
banned
law
schools
that
don’t
even
exist.
Same
goes
for
Carnegie
Mellon
University,
MIT,
Tufts,
Johns
Hopkins,
Florida
Institute
of
Technology,
and
Hawaii
Pacific
University.
The
London
School
of
Economics
somehow
catches
a
wild
transatlantic
stray,
probably
because
some
middling
civilian
DOD
official’s
Cntrl+F
search
for
“Trans”
brought
up
the
LSE.
These
schools
probably
ended
up
in
this
email
because
the
JAG
office
copied
and
pasted
the
full
list
of
Hegseth’s
verboten
grad
schools
into
this
list
to
without
bothering
to
edit
it.
The
list
includes
the
entire
T14
except
for
the
University
of
Chicago
and
the
three
public
law
schools
among
the
top-tier
—
Berkeley,
Michigan,
and
UVA.
Presumably
all
three
of
the
public
schools
will
join
the
Trump
administration’s
banned
list
unless
somehow
BERKELEY
of
all
schools
escapes
Hegseth’s
bleary
eyed,
anti-woke
gaze.
Remember
when
Columbia
and
Northwestern
completely
capitulated
to
the
Trump
administration?
A
lot
of
good
that
did
them,
as
they
still
landed
on
this
list.
It’s
almost
as
though
negotiating
with
authoritarians
has
never
worked
in
the
history
of
ever.
The
Defense
Department
hopes
to
spin
this
as
taking
away
a
handout
to
elite
universities
that
teach
“globalist
and
radical
ideologies,”
but
these
programs
constitute
investments
in
the
military’s
legal
infrastructure
and
help
the
military
recruit
and
retain
the
best
and
brightest
prospective
lawyers
who
will
otherwise
bolt
for
the
private
sector.
If
you’re
a
young
officer
realizing
that
your
LSAT
score
could
earn
a
Yale
Law
education,
but
the
DOD
relegates
you
to
ASSLaw
or
Ave
Maria
—
you’re
bolting
as
soon
as
your
time
is
up.
America’s
military
thrives
by
enticing
elite
talent
to
serve
in
critical
roles.
And,
in
time,
this
often
spills
out
into
the
private
sector
when
skilled
JAG
officers
leave
the
military
armed
with
elite
degrees
and
practical
experience.
Personally,
I’ve
written
multiple
recommendations
on
behalf
of
former
students
both
to
get
into
the
FLEP
program
in
the
first
place
and
then
to
get
into
top
law
schools.
That
the
government
would
purge
its
future
ranks
of
lawyers
with
elite
resumes
speaks
to
the
administration’s
embrace
of
national
decline.
But
I
guess
if
they’re
going
to
reduce
the
JAG
corps
to
stop-gap
immigration
judges
—
and
punish
any
immigration
judges
exercise
independent
judgment
—
they
don’t
feel
they
need
smart
lawyers.
Unfortunately,
they’re
creating
a
lost
generation
of
stellar
attorneys
that
will
bypass
service
because
the
DOD
wants
to
penalize
universities
for
teaching
that
slavery
happened
and
researching
vaccines.
Of
note,
Hegseth
has
degrees
from
Princeton
and
Harvard,
driving
home
the
epic
levels
of
“I
got
mine,
screw
the
next
kid
on
the
ladder”
energy
radiating
off
this
policy.
“Let’s
not
forget:
officers
from
these
same
‘high
risk’
schools
formed
the
backbone
of
American
military
leadership
in
WWII
and
WWI,”
@CounterIntel,
an
open-source
intelligence
social
media
account
noted.
“Now
we’re
telling
our
best
and
brightest
they
can’t
follow
in
their
footsteps?”
A
military
source
speaking
to
CNN
offered
an
equally
blunt
assessment:
The
military
official
said
the
guidance
was
akin
to
prohibiting
officers
from
obtaining
a
top
tier
education,
and
said
it
amounted
to
the
Pentagon
“attempting
to
purge
intellect,
diversity
of
thinking,
and
critical
thought
from
the
military.”“The
overall
concern
is
that
we
want
military
officers
and
non-commissioned
officers
to
have
the
ability
to
critically
think
and
challenge
ideas
…
and
some
of
these
institutions
are
great
places
to
do
that
whether
you
agree
with
liberal
or
conservative
thought
or
not,”
said
the
source
familiar
with
the
matter.
“It
seems
both
very
delicate
—
oh
these
words
and
ideas
scare
me,
so
I’ll
preclude
people
from
engaging
—
but
also
short-sighted
and
is
generating
confusion.”
Never
forget
that
the
conservative
is
the
most
delicate
snowflake
in
the
social
ecosystem.
Joe
Patrice is
a
senior
editor
at
Above
the
Law
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
Feel
free
to email
any
tips,
questions,
or
comments.
Follow
him
on Twitter or
Bluesky
if
you’re
interested
in
law,
politics,
and
a
healthy
dose
of
college
sports
news.
Joe
also
serves
as
a
Managing
Director
at
RPN
Executive
Search.