Claremont Institute Ponders Proxy Lawsuit against ASCMC

By Nisha Gottfredson
Staff Writer

The Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank in Claremont, is considering legal action against the Claremont Port Side.  The progressive, student-government funded newpaper published a quotation from an anonymous Claremont McKenna graduate alleging that CMC Professor Emeritus Harry Jaffa advocated violence against homosexuals.  

The November 2003 issue of the Claremont Port Side (to view, visit:  http://www.claremontportside.com/archives.asp, Volume 1, Issue 1), discussed an alleged atmosphere of intolerance against homosexuals and the connection between several CMC government professors and the Claremont Institute.  The article cited a letter sent to the CMC administration and several faculty members by a homosexual CMC graduate that accused Harry Jaffa of calling homosexuality “unnatural” and of saying that homosexuals should be “shot to death.”  

Harry Jaffa responded to the article with a letter to the Port Side demanding an apology and a retraction.  In the letter, Jaffa declared “I never said anything of the kind.  More than that, I never in the privacy of my own soul, ever thought such a thing.”   The Port Side refused to apologize or retract:  “All allegations presented in said article are founded upon verifiable evidence and merely report the opinions of other CMC community members.”  Jaffa sent a letter to the Claremont Institute after the hate crime hoax incident, saying that a hate crime has been committed against him by the Port Side, and accusing the Claremont community of ignoring his situation.  

The Claremont Institute, rather than Harry Jaffa himself, will bring charges against CMC’s student government (ASCMC) if they decide that legal action must be taken.  According to Institute Research Assistant Grant Winthrop, the Claremont Institute feels that the article has damaged their credibility because they were labeled as an Institute guilty of hate crimes against homosexuals (www.hatecrime.org lists CI as an organization which delivers hate speech).  Winthrop adds that when an author prints an anonymous quotation, the author becomes responsible for what is said.  Jaffa denies that he ever said that homosexuals should be shot, and the Claremont Institute believes that thePort Side did not investigate the validity of the accusation prior to printing it.  Since the Claremont Port Side is funded by ASCMC, ASCMC is legally accountable for the content of the newspaper and therefore a lawsuit would be brought against the ASCMC rather than the Port Side itself.  

Professor Jaffa says that he is not interested in the money that would be gained by legal action, but asks: “If they refuse to retract slander, what other recourse do I have?”  Winthrop says that he “sincerely hopes to avoid legal action because then lawyers and courts win, not people.”  He adds that legal action would not achieve much and is optimistic that ASCMC will agree with the Claremont Institute after an investigation and that the statement will be retracted without a legal battle.

John Wilson, writer for the Port Side, and Jacquelyn Dadakis, editor-in-chief, are currently investigating the validity of the former CMC student’s accusation against Professor Jaffa.  Because the investigation is in progress, neither he nor the ASCMC president Marc Bathgate could go into detail about the findings.  However, Bathgate says that if the accusation is determined to be unfounded, the ASCMC will “unquestionably expect [the Port Side] to retract their statement” but adds that the investigation is still ongoing with the Port Side’s cooperation and that no conclusions have yet been reached.  If the accusation is deemed invalid and the Port Side does not comply with the ASCMC’s request to retract the quotation about Jaffa, the ASCMC may deny further funding to the publication.  Currently, the ASCMC has only asked the Port Side to maintain journalistic standards, according to Port Side editor-in-chief Jacquelyn Dadakis.

Dadakis and the author of the article defend the inclusion of the quotation because it was taken directly from a letter sent by a former student about his experiences with hatred at Claremont McKenna.  According to Dadakis, the accusations of the student needed to be published because it had been sent to the administration and several faculty members but was never addressed by the CMC administration.  Valerie Blair, author of the article in question, “Unofficial Bedfellows:  Claremont McKenna College, The Claremont Institute, and Intolerance on Campus,” states that the purpose of the article was to “confront the reality of intolerance,” and is discouraged because she is receiving “a lot of flak” and may even be sued.  Blair adds that “with all the rhetoric about fighting hate crimes” she feels that she has “very little support on campus,” especially considering that the administration continues to decline to investigate the allegation in light of the threatened lawsuit.  

Editor Dadakis is saddened that “this allegation could be made and nothing has been done about it.  That the administration declined to investigate shows the CMC policy of dragging its feet about homophobia on campus.”  

Valerie Blair stands firm on her decision to write the accusatory article:  “I absolutely don’t regret it at all; it’s a very important issue.”

Harry Jaffa counters that the intolerance at CMC comes from the liberal community that feels free to print “false, slanderous statements in order to help their cause,” adding that “some people in the homosexual community regard anybody who does not agree with them as threatening violence against them.”  

Jaffa points out that no Republican has been appointed to teach government in 40 years at Pomona or Pitzer, signifying that conservatives are not welcome members of the community.  “We’ve got that mindset on our campuses.  It is inconsistent with a rational notion of diversity.”