[...] Professor
Robert Goldstein said the exam question was designed to test students’
ability to analyze the line between free speech and inciting violence.
It cited a report about how Michael Brown’s stepfather, Louis Head,
shouted, “Burn this bitch down!” after a grand jury decided not to
indict Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael
Brown.
The question then asked students to imagine that they are lawyers in
the St. Louis County Attorney’s office and had been asked to advise the
prosecutor “whether to seek an indictment against Head” for inciting
violence. The exam reads:
“[As]
a recent hire in the office, you are asked to write a memo discussing
the relevant First Amendment issues in such a prosecution. Write the
memo.”
But students complained, and writer Elie Mystal at the popular legal
blog “Above the Law”
opined that the
test question was “racially insensitive and divisive.” Mystal
also incorrectly alleged that the question asked students to “advocate
in favor of extremist racists in Ferguson.”
Goldstein has apologized for putting the question on the test and has
promised not to grade the question.
[...]
