who in 2017 signed a letter supporting the nomination of Judge Gorsuch. By my count, nine (9) ND law professors signed the same letter.
There's nothing in that biography that suggests he has any commitment to, or background for, the task of enhancing and pursuing NDLS's status as the source of the Catholic intellectual tradition's continuing voice in American jurisprudence, or even as the one place where a first-class legal education can be meaningfully informed by that tradition.
That's the one non-fungible element of Notre Dame Law School's mission. Everything else you can get at Texas or Vanderbilt, all while saving a ton of money on winterwear. I never saw that Newton had any clue about that, which is why my impression of her never rose above the initial thought that she was a pointlessly fungible functionary hired for solely materialist, immanentist ends based on a materialist, immanentist vision of the law school's mission.
It certainly seems that whatever else she may have accomplished (and improvements in things like IP faculty appear to have been material), Newton succeeded in ensuring that the law school leadership continued in her own image. I would very much like someone to show me that I'm wrong. But I wish you luck.
That's enough for me, for now.
who would seeming care about ND's Catholic mission seem to be happy with the hire. Prof. Rick Garnett referred to Cole as an old friend. He's also on the BOT of a Catholic high school in California. So I wouldn't write him off without knowing more.
I jest, somewhat.
I generally trust Rick's instincts and views, though, so that's something.
And I saw that he's on the board of a Catholic high school. But that's pretty meager. And I'm not saying this guy is necessarily a dud. You would just think that if he were hired with an eye to being the overseer of the law school's unique mission, there might be something in his hiring blurb about it. That same blurb would make him sound like a great dean hire anywhere. That's more an indictment of the search process than of him, I suppose.
Cole is catholic and supposedly on the conservative side of things.
he's Catholic?
I don't know him but this is an interesting read.
I like the plainspoken language throughout, his tone of humility and gratitude, and his ability to convey meaning and feeling without trying to impress others with big words or his credentials.
young Rudy, "Notre Dame is for rich kids, smart kids, great athletes..."
For the life of me, I don't know where I have heard his name before. Maybe he was a guest speaker at ND at some point.
Reading his bio, he clerked for the same Appellate Court Judge as Prof. Nicole Garnett, but he probably clerked for Judge Arnold before she did.