The more I learn about Yale Law School, the less I like what I hear. YLS is the birthplace of the Federalist Society. It is Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh’s alma mater and the primary platform for Amy Chua’s high-strung craziness and Jed Rubenfeld’s creepiness. Because there are no grades, career outcomes are determined by back-slapping and guanxi, rather than the rule of law.
I once asked an old student of mine, who went to college at Harvard, why he hated Yale. His answer was, “Because they suck”.
One of the more unpleasant recent products of Yale Law School is J.D. Vance, author of the book Hillbilly Elegy and Republican nominee for Senate in Ohio. Vance was born in West Virginia and moved to Ohio when he was ten days old. He served in the military in Iraq and then went to college at Ohio State and law school at Yale, where he was mentored by Chua. He takes the position that his early-life residence in West Virginia authorizes him to speak on behalf of residents of Appalachia (some Appalachians disagree). He opposes abortion, feels that the “childless left” is responsible for America’s woes, supports Viktor Orban’s view that non-parents’ votes should be weighted less than parents’ votes, and thinks that people should remain in abusive marriages rather than changing sexual partners “like underwear”. He did not back Trump initially, but has since cravenly kissed the ring, after he learned that that would help him gain power. During his 2022 Senate campaign, he claimed that Biden was flooding Ohio with illegal drugs.
The basic conundrum of manufactured housing communities is the hybrid nature of ownership (stay with me here. Mr. Vance will still be morally bankrupt when it all ties back). Residents own their homes. Park owners own the dirt underneath the homes. Transaction costs make moving homes difficult for residents. That means that there is always a systemic tension between the property rights of residents and park owners. One of the places where this often surfaces is when residents sell their homes. Every park in every town in every state in the country has a rule that says that residents can only sell their homes to buyers who have been approved by the park, and every one of those parks finds it difficult to enforce that rule. That is because park owners usually find out that a home has been sold after the fact.
This was recently posted by a funeral home near my park in central New York. It is an elegy for a former resident of that park:
Robert S. McLean, age 42 of Sharon, NY passed away Saturday, as the result of a motorcycle accident.
Born March 1, 1980 in Hebron, NY he was the son of Sam and Stevie McLean who survive. Robert was in the construction trade. He loved his family and friends. In addition to his parents, Robert is survived by his wife, Rachel I. Snopes-McLean; his children, Cav Clevelend (22), Indiana McLean (20), Power McClean (18), Lallo McLean (15) and Snyder L. McLean (13); his sister, Vivian Pies (Caleb); his brother, Louis McLean (Sam); his girlfriend, Morgan and her daughter, Nanette; paternal grandparents, John and Jenna McLean; mother in law, Alexa Snopes; several aunts, uncles, nieces nephews and cousins and many friends. In addition, he was predeceased by maternal grandparents, Lemuel and Carolina Franklin and father in law, Nigel Snopes.
A Celebration of Life will be held at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made directly to his family for expenses.
Louis McLean, brother of Robert, recently applied for residence in that park. A long-time resident, an older man, had decided to move to Florida. He wanted to sell his home and Louis wanted to buy it. When the application came in, Dee Dee, the manager of that park, emailed me to ask, “Didn’t we evict a McLean a few years ago?” I dug through my records, did some googling, dunked a Madeleine in some tea and scarfed it down. The memories came flooding back. We evicted Robert in 2016 for selling drugs. We evicted Rachel, who was living separately from Robert, after her son broke into their neighbor’s shed and stole several items of machinery. Indiana, who lived with her stepfather, moved out after being forcefully asked to do so. That happened because another resident had a pitbull, which we asked them to get rid of. That resident said that they needed the pitbull, because their ten-year-old son could not sleep without it by his side. He could not sleep without the pitbull by his side because he was scared of Indiana. He was scared of Indiana because, when he was five and she was ten, she had raped him. She had raped him because, when she was five, her step-father had raped her.
I try to provide clean, safe and affordable housing to working people who need it. I cannot do that if my customers’ neighbors make the park neither clean nor safe – or if they jack up my operating costs with legal fees. Evictions are horrific for residents, and they are no fun for owners, either. But sometimes you need to balance the utils and make tough choices. If you try to be a nice guy to everyone, your good customers – the ones who don’t cook meth and breed pitbulls – will suffer. And that is both bad ethics and bad business.
Louis’ application was denied. He did not provide proof of vaccination, he did not meet the credit score requirement for new applicants, and he did not provide references from people unrelated to him. He is welcome to purchase the home – since the park does not own the home, it cannot regulate who can own it – but he will have to remove the home from the park immediately, if he does so. The message was relayed to him and to the resident who wanted to sell the home to him. With luck, the seller will find another buyer and Louis will move somewhere else.
I do not mean to imply that these problems are endemic to people who live in manufactured housing communities. Mr. Vance’s morals are certainly as repugnant as anyone’s. Professor Chua has been credibly accused of substance abuse, lack of self control, and bullying. Professor Rubenfeld has been known to invite attractive young woman students to his office alone at nine O’Clock at night to discuss their clerkship application and doctrines of consent. Both Chua and Rubenfeld grew up with privileges unknown by most mobile home park residents, and as far as I know neither has the excuse of having been raped by his or her step-father when they were five. I understand that the law school has put Chua and Rubenfeld on a type of probation that reins in their more egregious excesses. That is the right thing to do; you need to get rid of the bad apples. If the dean keeps at it, she might eventually bring the institution up to the level of a well-run manufactured housing community.
