In Which Jonathan Turley Makes Me His Favorite Target

Jonathan Turley, in his goal to be a 15th rate Alan Dershowitz but even hackier, has decided that my role as Director of Graduate Studies for the history department for a small public university graduate program is out of bounds because I mention how racism infects our science and technology.

From my perspective, the most important aspect of that statement is the acknowledgment that Loomis has First Amendment protections in uttering such viewpoints. The question for the university is whether those viewpoints undermine his role in leading all graduate studies, particularly in dismissing the very basis for much of that work as racist.  Loomis claims that “all” science, statistics, and technology is racist. Period. It is a patently absurd statement that is devoid of any intellectual foundation or inquiry. It will certainly appeal to many who relish extremist and rejectionist views, including some in academia. However, it is the very antithesis of our intellectual mission as scholars and it does a great disservice to the many respected academics at the University of Rhode Island.

Nevertheless, Loomis wrote a column entitled “When Fascists Attack” for the site Lawyers, Guns, and Money. Loomis is listed as as one of a handful of “members” who contribute to the site. (For the record, that is the same site that ran a column by a Colorado law professor who claimed that raising questions about the 2020 was akin to Holocaust denial. That attack occurred a few days after the election when I noted that there were irregularities in the election, including an error in reporting the results from a district using Dominion software. I noted that the error involving a few thousand votes that was quickly corrected, did not indicate any widespread fraud, and would not affect the outcome of the election. It merely raised the question of whether such systems were still vulnerable to “human error.” The site denounced that statement was akin to denying that the Holocaust ever occurred.)

In his column, Loomis blasts the university by writing: “I guess this is how my administration responds to the need for anti-racism in American life and on campus, by openly throwing professors who talk about racism and technology under the fascist bus. Great job URI.”  It appears that now Rhode Island, in Professor Loomis’ view, is opposing anti-racism efforts and supporting fascists by rejecting his view of science, statistics, and technology.

There are lots of great parts of this: his hatred of Campos, the fact that none of these people can figure out that I am DGS for History, not the university, or dealing with any of my claims seriously, just completely ignoring how facial recognition technology is placing innocent Black people in prison!

It’s great to now be a frequent target for the most reprehensible law professor this side of Dersh. I wonder how people like this sleep at night. I guess whatever money he is making for supporting a coup attempt against a lawfully elected American government must help.