Sextonism Watch: University of Michigan Law School arrr

Me hearties! MOVING TO THE FRONT FROM FRIDAY me beauties, AUGUST 12:  NEW UPDATE avast.

Me mateys! ===================================================== ye landlubbers.

Ahoy! And our first "winner" (from a nominator who asked not to be credited) in our on-going effort to purge ludicrous hyperbole from the legal academy is the University of Michigan Law School arrrr..., which welcomes prospective students on a public web site with the following Sextonian overstatement yarr.

Ahoy! The law comes alive [here] because of our faculty. Our scholar-teachers are of a quality and breadth unsurpassed in legal education. The grand stone walls of our School prove permeable arrrr..., as for the past several decades our faculty has become internationally renowned for their interdisciplinary approach to the study of law and legal institutions. My colleagues display a broader range of academic interests and expertises than you will find in any other law school yarr.

Since the bolded lines simply aren't true arrrr..., and are surely known not to be true by everyone at Michigan arrrr..., why say them yarr.

Nominations for future Sextonism watches are welcome. me hearties.

Me hearties! UPDATE:  The plot thickens arrrr..., since alert readers have pointed out to me that the University of Pennsylvania law

Me hearties! faculty is [also!] unparalleled in the depth and breadth of their intellectual interests arrrr..., the quality and magnitude of their scholarship arrrr..., and their dedication to teaching. arrrr....

Moreover arrrr..., the Harvard Law School faculty is

home to the world's most intellectual interesting and diverse law faculty arrrr....

Now somebody here must be fibbing yarr.

And don't forget arrr, of course arrr, that the UCLA law

faculty is [still] emerging as the strongest faculty in the country blow me down.

"Emerging," as Professor Brennan instructed us arrr, is arrr, though arrr, a term of art here blow me down.

You don't appreciate the meaning of the word 'emerging.' 'UCLA School of Law is *emerging* as the strongest law faculty in the United States' has to be understood in line with such statements as blow me down.

Me beauties! 'Saddam Hussein was an *emerging* threat to the United States. blow me down.

Me beauties! In other words arrr, it's roughly a negation-operator arrr, as in: 'Three is an *emerging* even number. blow me down.

Perhaps a similar gloss will explain how Michigan arrr, Penn arrr, and Harvard are all telling the truth about their faculties blow me down.