The Regent law school was founded in 1986, when Oral Roberts
University shut down its ailing law school and sent its library to
Robertson's Bible-based college in Virginia.

It was initially called "CBN University School of Law" after the
televangelist's Christian Broadcasting Network, whose studios share
the campus and which provided much of the funding for the law school.

(The Coors Foundation is also a donor to the university.)

The American Bar Association accredited Regent 's law school in 1996.

Not long ago, it was rare for Regent graduates to join the federal
government.

But in 2001, the Bush administration picked the dean of Regent's
government school, Kay Coles James , to be the director of the Office
of Personnel Management -- essentially the head of human resources for
the executive branch.

The doors of opportunity for government jobs were thrown open to
Regent alumni.

"We've had great placement," said Jay Sekulow , who heads a non profit
law firm based at Regent that files lawsuits aimed at lowering
barriers between church and state.

"We've had a lot of people in key positions."

Many of those who have Regent law degrees, including Goodling, joined
the Department of Justice.

Their path to employment was further eased in late 2002, when John
Ashcroft , then attorney general, changed longstanding rules for
hiring lawyers to fill vacancies in the career ranks.



From The Boston Globe, 4/8/07:
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2007/04/08/scandal_puts_spotlight_on_christian_law_school/?page=full

Scandal puts spotlight on Christian law school

Grads influential in Justice Dept.

By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff


VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. --

The title of the course was Constitutional Law, but the subject was
sin.

Before any casebooks were opened, a student led his classmates in a
10-minute devotional talk, completed with "amens," about the need to
preserve their Christian values.

"Sin is so appealing because it's easy and because it's fun," the law
student warned.

Regent University School of Law, founded by televangelist Pat
Robertson to provide "Christian leadership to change the world," has
worked hard in its two-decade history to upgrade its reputation,
fighting past years when a majority of its graduates couldn't pass the
bar exam and leading up to recent victories over Ivy League teams in
national law student competitions.

But even in its darker days, Regent has had no better friend than the
Bush administration.

Graduates of the law school have been among the most influential of
the more than 150 Regent University alumni hired to federal government
positions since President Bush took office in 2001, according to a
university website.

One of those graduates is Monica Goodling , the former top aide to
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales who is at the center of the storm
over the firing of US attorneys.

Goodling, who resigned on Friday, has become the face of Regent
overnight -- and drawn a harsh spotlight to the administration's
hiring of officials educated at smaller, conservative schools with
sometimes marginal academic reputations.

Documents show that Goodling, who has asserted her Fifth Amendment
right against self-incrimination to avoid testifying before Congress,
was one of a handful of officials overseeing the firings.

She helped install Timothy Griffin , the Karl Rove aide and her former
boss at the Republican National Committee, as a replacement US
attorney in Arkansas.

Because Goodling graduated from Regent in 1999 and has scant
prosecutorial experience, her qualifications to evaluate the
performance of US attorneys have come under fire.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, asked at a
hearing:

"Should we be concerned with the experience level of the people who
are making these highly significant decisions?"

And across the political blogosphere, critics have held up Goodling,
who declined to be interviewed, as a prime example of the Bush
administration subordinating ability to politics in hiring decisions.

"It used to be that high-level DOJ jobs were generally reserved for
the best of the legal profession," wrote a contributor to The New
Republic website . ". . . That a recent graduate of one of the very
worst (and sketchiest) law schools with virtually no relevant
experience could ascend to this position is a sure sign that there is
something seriously wrong at the DOJ."

___________________________________________________

No kidding

Harry

The Regent law school was founded in 1986, when Oral Roberts
University shut down its ailing law school and sent its library to
Robertson's Bible-based college in Virginia.

It was initially called "CBN University School of Law" after the
televangelist's Christian Broadcasting Network, whose studios share
the campus and which provided much of the funding for the law school.

(The Coors Foundation is also a donor to the university.)

The American Bar Association accredited Regent 's law school in 1996.

Not long ago, it was rare for Regent graduates to join the federal
government.

But in 2001, the Bush administration picked the dean of Regent's
government school, Kay Coles James , to be the director of the Office
of Personnel Management -- essentially the head of human resources for
the executive branch.

The doors of opportunity for government jobs were thrown open to
Regent alumni.

"We've had great placement," said Jay Sekulow , who heads a non profit
law firm based at Regent that files lawsuits aimed at lowering
barriers between church and state.

"We've had a lot of people in key positions."

Many of those who have Regent law degrees, including Goodling, joined
the Department of Justice.

Their path to employment was further eased in late 2002, when John
Ashcroft , then attorney general, changed longstanding rules for
hiring lawyers to fill vacancies in the career ranks.



From The Boston Globe, 4/8/07:
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2007/04/08/scandal_puts_spotlight_on_christian_law_school/?page=full

Scandal puts spotlight on Christian law school

Grads influential in Justice Dept.

By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff


VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. --

The title of the course was Constitutional Law, but the subject was
sin.

Before any casebooks were opened, a student led his classmates in a
10-minute devotional talk, completed with "amens," about the need to
preserve their Christian values.

"Sin is so appealing because it's easy and because it's fun," the law
student warned.

Regent University School of Law, founded by televangelist Pat
Robertson to provide "Christian leadership to change the world," has
worked hard in its two-decade history to upgrade its reputation,
fighting past years when a majority of its graduates couldn't pass the
bar exam and leading up to recent victories over Ivy League teams in
national law student competitions.

But even in its darker days, Regent has had no better friend than the
Bush administration.

Graduates of the law school have been among the most influential of
the more than 150 Regent University alumni hired to federal government
positions since President Bush took office in 2001, according to a
university website.

One of those graduates is Monica Goodling , the former top aide to
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales who is at the center of the storm
over the firing of US attorneys.

Goodling, who resigned on Friday, has become the face of Regent
overnight -- and drawn a harsh spotlight to the administration's
hiring of officials educated at smaller, conservative schools with
sometimes marginal academic reputations.

Documents show that Goodling, who has asserted her Fifth Amendment
right against self-incrimination to avoid testifying before Congress,
was one of a handful of officials overseeing the firings.

She helped install Timothy Griffin , the Karl Rove aide and her former
boss at the Republican National Committee, as a replacement US
attorney in Arkansas.

Because Goodling graduated from Regent in 1999 and has scant
prosecutorial experience, her qualifications to evaluate the
performance of US attorneys have come under fire.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, asked at a
hearing:

"Should we be concerned with the experience level of the people who
are making these highly significant decisions?"

And across the political blogosphere, critics have held up Goodling,
who declined to be interviewed, as a prime example of the Bush
administration subordinating ability to politics in hiring decisions.

"It used to be that high-level DOJ jobs were generally reserved for
the best of the legal profession," wrote a contributor to The New
Republic website . ". . . That a recent graduate of one of the very
worst (and sketchiest) law schools with virtually no relevant
experience could ascend to this position is a sure sign that there is
something seriously wrong at the DOJ."

___________________________________________________

No kidding

Harry