“Prompted by a complaint from the Liberty Legal Institute, a group of Christian lawyers, the [Justice] department is investigating whether Michael L. Dini, an associate professor of biology at Texas Tech University here, discriminated against students on the basis of religion when he posted a demand on his Web site that students wanting a letter of recommendation for postgraduate studies ‘truthfully and forthrightly affirm a scientific answer’ to the question of how the human species originated.” Nick Madigan

—Professor’s Snub of Creationists Prompts U.S. InquiryNY Times)

Does the law require a professor to write a letter of recommendation? Regardless of the sensitive nature of the issue, shouldn’t a professor be permitted to choose who does and who does not get a letter of recommendation? Isn’t Dini being excruciatingly fair by explaining, up front, his recommendation policy, when he could, if he were truly devious, simply write lukewarm letters for those students who don’t meet his criteria? (Thanks, Ron Zeno and Chris Worth.)