Boston Law Won't Award Top Medal to Mukasey When He Addresses Grads
Attorney General Michael Mukasey will be the first commencement speaker in some time at Boston College Law School who won’t receive its highest award, but he won’t be the last.
Law school dean John Garvey announced yesterday that the school will no longer give its Founder’s Medal to commencement speakers, the Boston Globe reports. He said the decision was not intended as a personal comment on the attorney general. Instead he characterized it as a policy move allowing the school to attract high-profile speakers who also can attract high-profile criticism.
“This is a policy decision that will make it easier for us to invite people of his prominence in the future,” he told the newspaper.
Mukasey’s selection has spurred criticism by students who object to his refusal to declare that waterboarding is torture.
Former ABA President Michael Greco received the medal, awarded to those who “embody the traditions of professionalism, scholarship, and service,” when he spoke to graduating students in 2006.
