ML King, Junior on that honorary degree for Obama

Francis Beckwith quotes the famous Letter from a Birmingham Jail to good effect.

Writing on the same subject, "Uncle Di" says the trouble at Notre Dame goes back 40 years, to the "Land O' Lakes rebellion" of 1967, which denied that Catholic universities have any allegiance to authority "external to the academic community itself," with the predictable result that "The Pope and the bishop have no teaching authority inside the school except that granted to them by the academic community itself."

That the assertion is demonstrably false doesn't matter, because it's at the heart of that never-repudiated "Land O'Lakes" declaration. "Arguably," adds Uncle Di with more than a little heat, that golden dome and chapel mean less than they should, because "God has no authority at Notre Dame—unless the academic community itself sees fit. To claim otherwise would be a violation of 'true autonomy.' "

For some people (and more than a few professors), it appears that autonomy means never having to say you're sorry.