The Intellectual Passivist passes on the news that Washington University in St. Louis rejected the Pro-Life students' group there because they "did not have an 'anti-death penalty' position in its constitution."

The SBA maintains that the group's focus is too narrow, unlike the Golf Club's.

I would argue that the non-inclusion of an anti-death penalty statement would broaden the club's appeal, encompassing both subsets of the anti-abortion folks: those who advocate the death penalty (a few Supreme Court justices come to mind on this one) and those who don't. It's really not such a radical idea.

What's really going on is just linguistic gymnastics: it looks as if the SBA trying to get them to change their name from "pro-life" to "anti-abortion." This reaches new pinnacles of asininity; if they wanted to call themselves "The Knights of the Purple Zulu," that'd be okay by me. I'd even be okay with them advocating euthanasia and opposing abortion. They should have the right to organize themselves any way they please. And certainly the intellectual debate (even though I wouldn't agree with it personally) has got to be better than the numerous other silly groups peppering law campuses everywhere.

* Oh, come on! It's a joke!