Kamala Harris Got Into Law School Via a Program She Didn't Qualify For
By Jim Thompson | 7:45 AM on October 22, 2024
Kamala Harris graduated from Howard University without honors. Harris then applied to law school. She was admitted to Hastings School of Law at the University of California. Hastings is considered a good law school but not “elite." It ranks 80th of America’s ABA schools.
Admission isn't a "breeze" but it is pretty easy to be accepted for an honors student, with a solid LSAT. Of the total applicants to Hastings, about half are accepted and around a third of that number actually enroll. That means Hasting is a “backup” law school for a lot of the applicants.
She wasn't an honors student at Howard. There is no information on what Kamala Harris scored on her LSAT. We do know that she didn't pass the Bar on the first try when 80 percent of her classmates did pass. So how did a run-of-the-mill student, and daughter of a “privileged” upbringing get into Hastings School of Law?
Easy – she fudged her application. Harris was admitted under a program called LEOP. According to the University:
UC Hastings created the Legal Education Opportunity Program (LEOP) in 1969 to make an outstanding legal education accessible to those who come from disadvantaged economic and educational backgrounds.
Students are encouraged to submit a “separate LEOP statement describing the adversity they faced and its impact on their academic preparedness for law school. Diagnostic reports documenting disabilities and/or accommodations can be submitted as addenda.” In a Politico article from 2021, the author describes Harris at Hastings:
In the fall of 1986, Harris arrived on campus at Hastings a week before most of her classmates. She was part of the pre-orientation Legal Education Opportunity Program (LEOP), which had been founded in 1969 to help law students from disadvantaged communities navigate the stringent demands of the first-year curriculum. Harris had come to a predominantly white institution after four years at a historically Black university. Beyond introducing students to Socratic pedagogy, case-briefing and exam-taking, the pre-orientation also gave students of color a sense of community and a hamlet of solidarity in a cut-throat environment. Harris, the daughter of two college professors, who grew up attending private schools in Canada, was not, in the least, economically or socially disadvantaged. But there she is, claiming she was.
more
https://redstate.com/jimthompson/2024/10/22/kamala-got-into-law-school-based-on-program-she-didnt-quality-for-n2180892
