Law Students Fight Over Video

A videotape of a debate held last month at the Law School has become the subject of heated debate between civil liberties groups and a right-wing law students organization.

In March, the Civil Liberties Union (CLU), a liberal advocacy group at the Law School, and the Federalists, a conservative organization, sponsored a debate between Norman Dorsen and William Donahue. Dorsen is president of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), while Donahue is one of the ACLU's most vocal critics.

Prior to arriving in Cambridge, Donahue requested the Law School videotape of the event, which drew more than 250 spectators to the Ames Courtroom in Austin Hall. The Federalist Society paid for the taping.

The controversy arose when the Federalist Society--which now possesses the tape--refused to give any copies to either Dorsen or CLU. Donahue also has not received a copy.

CLU says that since Harvard Law employees made the tape for one of the school's student organizations, the tape is property of Harvard Law School.

"The student group does not thereby acquire the right to exclude access to other members of the Law School community," Warren Asher, CLU president, wrote in a brief to Dean of Students Sarah Weld.

The Federalists meanwhile say they fear CLU might edit the tape to cast Donahue in a negative light, and argue that copying or selling the tape might violate copyright laws.

"Professor Donahue and the ACLU are on the worst of terms, and I sincerely believe that there is a significant possibility that if the tape is simply released to the ACLU that it will be used in an improper manner to discredit Donahue," Ronald K. Edquist, Federalist Society president, wrote in his brief to the dean of students.

Asher, for his part, says he fears the Federalist Society will try to do the very same thing, only to cast Dorsen in a negative light.

"The members of the HLS Federalist Society cannot exclude access to the videotape because they don't approve of some of the viewpoints expressed therein or because they don't want it to be seen by those who do not share their ideology," Asher wrote.

Unable to reach a consensus, Asher and Edquist have presented their briefs to Wald. Wald took those briefs to the Law School's administrative board, which will consider the case next week.

Ad Board members refused to comment yesterday.

Meanwhile, neither of the two speakers have received copies of the videotape yet.

"I had assumed that the tape made of the debate would be generally available so that members of the public could draw their own conclusions about the Donahue allegation concerning the ACLU," Dorsen, who is also a law professor at New York University, said in an interview yesterday. "It is surprising, to say the least, that anyone would try to deepsix the record of an open debate at an academic institution about civil liberties."

"If I can't get it, I can't get it," said Donahue, who is a professor of sociology at LaRoche College in Pittsburgh. Donahue, who was a consultant to President Bush's campaign two years ago, added that the whole debate is "silly" and recommended both sides merely sign a contract prohibiting them from editing the tape.