Famed constitutional scholar and Harvard Law Prof. Laurence Tribe recently admitted to not citing passages he took from a book by retired University Politics Prof. Henry Abraham.
Tribe's book "God Save This Honorable Court" paraphrased several passages, and copied one 19-word passage directly from Abraham's "Justices and Presidents: A Political History of the Supreme Court" without attribution.
Reporter Joseph Bottum broke the story in the Oct. 4 edition of The Weekly Standard.
Abraham said he has been aware of Tribe's plagiarism for 20 years.
"I felt betrayed at the time I became aware of Prof. Tribe's plagiarism, and I still feel that way," Abraham said in a Sept. 28 article in The Boston Globe.
Abraham currently is traveling in Europe and was unavailable for comment.
Abraham had never publicly voiced his concerns about the use of his work before The Weekly Standard article.
"I've never confronted him -- and I was wrong in not following it up," Abraham told The Weekly Standard. "I should have done something about it ... he's a big mahatma and thinks he can get away with this sort of thing."
Stanley Brubaker, a government professor at Colgate University, who was Abraham's assistant at the time he published the book, said Abraham was a devoted scholar who "wanted to spend his time writing rather than fighting."
Another one of Abraham's colleagues at the University, Law Prof. A.E. Dick Howard, who has worked with Abraham for more than 30 years, confirmed this assessment.
"He's such a gentleman," Howard said. "He really is one of the most civil, thoughtful and courteous people I know. He's certainly not someone to pick a fight. He would never go out of his way to have a quarrel with some other academics. It's not a surprise that he wouldn't dart out to start a quarrel."
Tribe issued a statement acknowledging the allegations Sept. 27.
"My well-meaning effort to write a book accessible to a lay audience through the omission of footnotes or endnotes -- in contrast to the practice I have always followed in my scholarly writing -- came at an unacceptable cost: My failure to attribute some of the material The Weekly Standard identified," he said in a statement. "I personally take full responsibility for that failure."
Tribe's office declined to comment for this article.
He wrote "God Save This Honorable Court" in 1985.
Tribe also represented former Vice President Al Gore before the Supreme Court in the lawsuit over the disputed 2000 presidential election and recently represented the Florida Democratic Party in its unsuccessful attempt to keep Ralph Nader off of the state's ballot for the Nov. 2 election.
Abraham's book, "Justices and Presidents: A Political History of the Supreme Court" was published in 1974. Much of the historical narrative used to set the precedent for Tribe's thesis was lifted from Abraham's book, Bottum said in a telephone interview.
Tribe's admission follows three other high profile allegations of plagiarism against Harvard faculty members, including Doris Kearns Goodwin, a member of Harvard's Board of Overseers; and law professors Charles Ogletree and Alan Dershowitz. The Weekly Standard initially reported both the Goodwin and Ogletree stories.
Tribe's own condemnation of plagiarism as he tried to clarify his defense of Ogletree brought Tribe's 20-year-old book back into the spotlight.
"As to the larger problem you describe -- the problem of writers, political office-seekers, judges and other high government officials passing off the work of others as their own -- I think you're focusing on a phenomenon of some significance," Tribe wrote on Sept. 24 in response to the online Web log, or "blog," frequented by law professors and run by Lawrence Velvel, dean of the Massachusetts School of Law.
Bottum said someone who had known about Tribe's lack of attribution since "God Save This Honorable Court" was first published brought the blog post to his attention and suggested he take a look at Abraham's book.
Since The Weekly Standard published the story, the issue of plagiarism at Harvard has been the subject of numerous news stories. Dershowitz told The Harvard Crimson that he suspects political motivations spurred the conservative Weekly Standard's piece.
Bottum dismissed these allegations.
"If a comparable figure on the right had done it, I'd still have reported it," he said.
Read More
Senior VP for Operations Colette Sheehy looks back at her career at the University
By Brandon Kile | 23 hours agoSheehy’s role involved overseeing the work of around 2,500 University employees, including custodians, architects and engineers.
Will the Faculty Senate’s no-confidence vote impact the U.Va. Board of Visitors?
By Brandon Kile | YesterdayIn many cases, a no-confidence vote may soon be followed by steps taken to remove the leadership that may be acting against the wishes of a community.
Two senior U.Va. Health leaders quietly take new jobs without formal announcement
By Ford McCracken | 2 days agoKibbe’s departure marks the end of an ongoing battle between U.Va. Health employees and their senior leadership.
