Is legacy inegalitarian and un-American?
Notre Dame University has taken heat recently for inviting President Obama to speak at commencement and for offering to award him an honorary degree. The source of Catholic frustration is Obama’s professed defense of abortion. Now it’s Obama who’s feeling the heat, this time from the left in the American Prospect. Richard Kahlenberg and Steve Shadowen argue that Obama should give the Notre Dame ceremony a pass due to the university’s “legacy” admissions policy that reserves 25 percent of incoming seats to children of alumni. According to Kahlenberg and Shadowen, legacy “offends” the American principle of equality: Notre Dame’s quota for right-ancestry students offends an American egalitarian tradition dating back to the Revolution. The Founders overthrew a semi-feudal order where rank and status were inherited rather than earned. In Gordon Wood’s memorable phrase, the Revolution was “a vindication of frustrated talent at the expense of birth and blood.” After transcribing the self-evid
