It turns out that admissions at the state’s top law school are influenced by politics. Who knew?

Some of the least-qualified graduates of the University of Texas School of Law in recent years have high-level connections in the Legislature, which may explain how they got into the prestigious law school in the first place.

A months-long Watchdog.org analysis of political influence on the admissions process at UT Law found there’s some truth, after all, to the old line about who you know mattering more than what you know. We found dozens of Longhorns who don’t know enough to be lawyers but know somebody important in the Legislature.

Two of those mediocre students are legislators themselves.

It’s not even exclusive to one party or the other.

Where I’m not sure they’re right is in their apparent correlation between qualifications to go to law school and bar exam passage rates. One could argue that those are two separate things, as least where UT Law School is concerned. Continue reading →