The embodiment of all that's wrong with our educational system, our court system, and our culture generally

Lee C. Bollinger is supposed to be quite the muckety-muck.  He's president of Columbia University and former dean of the University of Michigan law school.  That's scary, given the guy's views on the function of legal opinion.

On the NYT op-ed page today, he weighs in on the Supreme Court's decision to kick the affirmative-action case back down to the appellate level to re-examine the "strict scrutiny principle."  He then offers some pretty ripe pronouncements:

The court is as much an educator, a moral instructor, as an interpreter of the fundamental law of the land. In construing the constitutional issues so narrowly, the decision can be read as taking a reluctant, even begrudging, stance toward affirmative action.

Part of this hesitance is, no doubt, a product of judicial compromise. But for ordinary Americans, the linkage between race-conscious college admissions and the larger project of social justice is at risk of being lost amid the minutiae.

"Larger project of social justice."  Chew on that a while.

He cites disparities school-population patterns  as something it is proper for courts to address.  Hey, buddy, are you a jurist or a stinking sociologist?  Are you sure you know for certain the myriad reasons for these disparities?

Then he gets all gooey in the BVDs over the opportunity for legal decisions to make for dramatic moments in American history:

The greatest moments of jurisprudence have never been merely dry legal analysis, but have been linked to broader principles — and historical and social realities — from which they derive.

Look pal, you want some high drama to make the heart swell and the skin tingle?  Read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

I hope I see lots of other outlets taking down this dog vomit as the day goes on.