Michael Goldfarb continues to embarrass himself

Written by Jamison Foser

Published

The Weekly Standard's Michael Goldfarb remains on the lookout for evidence that Sonia Sotomayor has benefited from “preferential treatment.”

On Wednesday, Goldfarb argued that one such example was when a law firm apologized to Sotomayor for suggesting that she only got into Yale Law School because she was Puerto Rican (rather than because she had compiled an impressive academic record at Princeton, including winning the school's top academic prize.) That's a pretty absurd example of “preferential treatment,” but today Goldfarb outdoes himself.

Here's Goldfarb:

Stuart Taylor digs up another example from Sotomayor's Princeton days:

In October 1974, Princeton allowed Sotomayor and two other students to initiate a seminar, for full credit and with the university's blessings, on the Puerto Rican experience and its relation to contemporary America.

I went to Princeton but somehow I never got to teach my own class, or grade my own work. One wonders how Sotomayor judged her work in that class, and whether the grade helped or hindered her efforts to graduate with honors.

And here's the Princeton press release Taylor cites:

So they [Sotomayor and two other students] did what scores of other Princeton Students have been able to do for the past six years: they initiated their own seminar ... The seminar is being taught by Dr. Peter E. Winn, Assistant Professor of History and a specialist in Latin American affairs. Under a plan adopted by Princeton in 1968 students are free to propose seminars on special topics to a faculty Committee on Course of Study. ... In the past 12 terms 132 such courses have been approved and offered."
The release also makes clear that the seminar Sotomayor initiated had been offered twice before.
So Goldfarb's snide comments about Sotomayor teaching her own class and grading her own work seem to be completely baseless: she didn't teach the class.
It is, however, increasingly clear why Goldfarb's Princeton career didn't go the way Sonia Sotomayor's did, and it has less to do with Sotomayor receiving “preferential treatment” than with Goldfarb's limited reading comprehension abilities.
UPDATE: And, of course, this is yet another example of the trouble you get into when you take your cues from Stuart Taylor.