Blogger Ethics

This post from Notes from the Legal Underground got me thinking a lot of blogger ethics.  Thus, in two posts I address an issue raised in Professor Jeff Rosen's New York Times Magazine article (an argument against blogs), and in this post from Professor Orin Kerr.  Namely, when is it approprirate for a student to blog about this his professor says.

Post 1. When, if ever, do law professors have an expectation of privacy in what they say to a law student?

Post 2.  Assuming the professor does not have an expectation of privacy in what he or she says; should the student blog about it?

Comments

[ken]

1. Never. At least not as long as it happens in class or in some sort of school related environment.

2. Only if he is looking for trouble. Everyone has a right to free speech but that doesn't protect them from the one (1) out of hundreds of law professors who will strike back. After all, isn't it her strong-arm, whacko, biased, spiteful antics in the classroom that make her perfect for being blogged about? ;-)

[Greatest American Lawyer]

Welcome to the wide wide world of the internet. Privacy will give way to freedom of speech. It is only a matter of time.

[Aaron]

There was a professor at my law school who allegedly made a rather sensational statement during a lecture, which quickly made the rounds of the law school. I didn't hear it, but it was confirmed by enough of the professor's students that it seemed pretty likely that it had been made. The professor caught wind of the murmurs, and informed that class in its subsequent session that they had "misheard" what had been said, that anything said in class was to be considered covered by a form of privilege, not to be quoted in other contexts, and expressing that tape recorders were forbidden in her classes.

I had another professor, who was ordinarily very respectful of his colleagues, share a very candid opinion about that first professor during a post-class moment. (I was with a classmate who had a knack for getting unguarded answers to some very pointed questions.) After our next class with professor #2, he asked us to respect that he regretted having made the comment and that the comment was not intended for a wider audience. Of course, we already knew that.

I don't think that either professor had a "right" to privacy in relation to their comments, although I had a lot more sympathy for the second professor's request than for the first professor's demands.