My Two Cents

De Novo co-blogger PG notes that Columia Law's dean has offered to take in a few students from Tulane law who are obviously not sitting in class and writing blog posts (which is a huge problem given the stringent ABA class time requirements).

I think we can do the same. Given Chancellor Birgenau's e-mail, I don't think Dean Edley will have any trouble convincing the higher brass to accept a handful of Tulane students for the semester and waiving tuition for them. I'm inclined to write to the Dean if there is support from the Boalt community. Hell I'd even pay for part of the airfare of getting them out here.

Update: Add UT to the list. (hat tip: Leiter)

Update II: This commenter on Drum's Blog expresses a thought I had today while watching the news:

"It seems clear to me that the buses shouldn't be going to Houston, but somewhere closer temporarily, where this is food and water. People should be taken to a staging area maybe an hour out of town, so that everyone can be removed in a matter of a day or so.

Then, move them to Houston without having them waiting for their ride in the midst of hell.

Can't someone in charge think of this shit?"

Update III: And there's the nutcase solution to the problems. I think for a split second, the conservatives can get off the property rights high horse and return to reality. I'm just glad co-conspirator Orin Kerr points out the obvious flaws in such a worldview, however, I join this commenter in suggesting that this should not even be a debate and add that Kopel should return to stroking his gun on a rocking chair. But more substantively, here's an idea that's sure to give the nutcases a heart attack. How about we suspend the 2nd Amendment in times of crises (the 14th seems to have gone by the way side) and just arrest and throw the book at any civilian caught with a weapon. What a marvelous idea.

Update IV: As a commenter points out below, Boalt has indeed stepped up to the plate. In pertinent part:

Boalt has joined a number of U.S. law schools in stepping forward to offer assistance by accepting into our community and our classes a limited number of students from Tulane and Loyola for the fall semester. "Our response to this emergency is only 24 hours old and there are a myriad of details to address but we hope to have these students arriving at Boalt by mid-September," said Boalt Hall Professor Andrew Guzman, who proposed and is assisting in organizing our offer to the displaced students. Boalt is also considering other ways our community may be able to assist the student visitors, such as with housing, books, etc.

An emergency website address has been set up for Tulane Law School: http://Tulane.law.emory.edu.

Tulane and Loyola students seeking further information on Boalt's offer of assistance may contact Boalt Hall Dean of Students Victoria Ortiz, 510-643-3057, vortiz@law.berkeley.edu.

I applaud Prof. Guzman and Dean Ortiz. Now we need to host these students and actually get them here. A flight to Oakland from Houston on Southwest is around $200 for Sept. 6. Any steamers who want to chip in, e-mail me ASAP so that I can tell Dean Ortiz that we have at least one student covered. I also suggest people do the same within their mods.