A Scout’s Honor The measure was an When the about-face f rom a Boy Scouts hard-fought Supreme of America Court case 13 years earlier, (BSA) held Boy Scouts of America v. Dale. a closely The justices then ruled 5–4 watched to uphold the BSA’s freedom vote on of association—or, more whether accurately, its freedom not to admit gay Scouts, it was to associate with gays. the organization’s volunPerry says that the wide teer president, Wayne Perry margin—61 percent supLLM ’76, who announced the ported the resolution—surresults. On May 23, dressed prised him, adding, “I also in his Scout’s uniform, he was proud of our people. declared that, effective JanuWe had people who opposed ary 2014, “No youth may be us, who made forceful argudenied membership in the Boy Scouts of America ments about this. They on the basis of sexual immediately rolled orientation or prefup their sleeves and erence alone.” said, ‘OK, decision More than 1,400 made. Let’s get member s of t he to work.’” BSA’s National CounPerry sees the cil, composed of voldevelopment as a unteer leaders across the coun- means of moving forward: try, voted on the resolution. “Did we have gay kids in the
family? Yes, we did. Have we now gone to a more honest place? Yes, we have. By doing this, we upheld our standard that a Scout is honest.” He freely acknowledges that the continued ban on gay and lesbian Scout leaders leaves many external factions still critical of the BSA. “We had no illusions about satisfying the outside world,” he says. “This was the Scouting family making a decision. I hope that people will understand what it’s really like to be in the Scouting organization. There are no kinder, more considerate people on the planet than those Cubmasters, den leaders, and Scoutmasters who are dealing with kids that have challenges—divorce, poverty, abuse, and everything else. I hope this decision will enable more people to join.”
Counterpoint The idea that we have somehow tipped off the terrorists to the fact that the US government is monitoring their telephone calls and emails is completely idiotic. The only things that we’ve revealed are things to the American people that they didn’t know about how their communications, not the communications of the terrorists, are being monitored. Activist and Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald ’94, who broke multiple stories about surveillance by the National Security Agency, responding to Rep. Peter King’s call that he be prosecuted for his groundbreaking reporting.
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Inaugural Ford Foundation Fellows
The Ford Foundation launched a Law School Fellowship Program to provide 10-week placements for 100 high-performing 1L and 2L students in the foundation’s grantee organizations around the world.
total number of schools selected
number of Ford Foundation Fellows from NYU Law
“Investing in the next generation of leaders is central to the Ford Foundation’s mission,” said Foundation President Luis Ubiñas. “This effort continues the expansion of our work with leading academic institutions in the United States and worldwide.” One of only four law schools invited to participate, NYU Law selected the following 25 inaugural fellows: M. Gabrielle Apollon-Richardson ’15, Siobhan Atkins ’14, Juan Camilo Mendez Guzman ’15, Emma Clippinger ’15, Alexander Connelly ’15, Martin de Jesus Santos Paredes ’15, Lyubomira Docheva ’15, Jesse Dong ’15, Brittany Francis ’14, Monte Frenkel ’15, Rebecca Hufstader ’15, Andrew Jondahl ’15, Nishi Kumar ’15, Rahim Manji ’15, Anne Mathews ’14, John Nelson ’15, Vivake Prasad ’15, Joshua Riegel ’15, Johann Strauss ’15, Colin Stroud ’15, Aimee Thomson ’15, Adrienne Warrell ’15, Geoffrey Wertime ’14.
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Time’s 2013 list of the 100 most influential people in the world featured Vrinda Grover LLM ’06, a Delhibased human rights lawyer and advocate for women’s rights. After a young Indian woman’s brutal sexual assault sparked protests in Delhi, Grover argued that India must reform its sexual violence laws. “The laws on sexual assault have to be expanded to include such crimes varying from hurt and humiliation to penetrative assault,” Grover told the New Yorker in January. In her Time tribute, Indian journalist Nilanjana Roy wrote, “In the conservative backlash that followed the waves of women’s protests, Grover’s voice—loud, uncompromising—was raised again and again in the rambunctious theater of Indian TV. Justice and equality, however distant, are the goal; she is there to remind politicians that nothing less will do.”
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perry: tony gutierrez / afp; Grover: illustration By David Despau for Time magazine
Loud and Clear