Survey of Law School Faculty 2025, Views on the U.S. Department of Justice

This report looks at how law school faculty in the USA view the recent evolution of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), focusing particularly on the issue of the independence of the DOJ from the presidential administration in power. The report presents views of this relationship in the Biden Administration, the current Trump Administration, and expectations for its evolution in future Democratic and Republican Administrations. The study presents detailed data sets on how law school faculty view this relationship currently, in the recent past, and how they feel it will evolve in different political circumstances in the future. In addition, the study explores the impact of the evolution of the DOJ on law professors view of it as an employment option for law school graduates. In addition, in an open ended question, survey respondents discuss if the restoration of greater DOJ independence is necessary and, if so, how to achieve it. Data in the report from 114 respondents is broken out by numerous institutional and personal variables such as work title, gender, field of law, age, political views and law school size and ranking. Just a few of this 50-page report’s many findings are that: The oldest faculty, those over age 60, were the least inclined to recommend that their students should work at the DOJ. No political conservatives in the sample felt that the current DOJ was directly controlled by the White House but 70% of liberals felt this way. In general, the more highly ranked the law school, the more likely that respondents felt that the Biden Administration DOJ had been subject to White House influence. 50% of those liberals who believe that the current DOJ is directly controlled by the White House also believe that this would not be the case in the next Republican Administration.