Federal judge clears way for Kentucky law dean to take office
The University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law in July 2022. (Photo by LawAnalyzer40526, CC-BY-SA-4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
A federal judge in Kentucky has declined to step in and stop U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove of the Eastern District of Kentucky from becoming dean of the University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law.
Law.com reported that U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Beaton of the Western District of Kentucky on Friday refused to an issue an injunction that had been sought by Kentucky law professor Ramsi Woodcock—a move that clears the way for Tatenhove to assume office Monday.
U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove of the Eastern District of Kentucky. (Photo by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Cincinnati, PD US Courts, via Wikimedia Commons)
Woodcock had alleged that Tatenhove was unqualified under standards by the American Bar Association and had been appointed over the objections of faculty members and school officials.
In his ruling, Beaton held that temporary injunctive relief was not warranted in this case, calling it “extreme.” Beaton was unconvinced that a restraining order was “necessary to avoid irreparable harm” and pointed out that “the relief that Woodcock requests appears to be either too early or too late to avoid the harm he seeks to prevent.”
According to Law.com, Jay Blanton, a spokesperson for the university, declined to comment on the ruling, while Woodcock’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
Tatenhove, an appointee to the bench by former President George W. Bush in 2005, had also engendered opposition from Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, who questioned the need for the job and the search process behind it.
“I am losing confidence and growing increasingly concerned with the management and decision-making at the University of Kentucky. My concerns include the creation of a new $1 million job that has no defined duties and the announcement that the new dean of law was the only candidate not recommended by law school faculty,” Beshear stated in a Facebook post.
Woodcock’s case was heard in the Western District of Kentucky despite being originally been filed in the Eastern District of Kentucky because Tatenhove’s colleagues all recused themselves to avoid the appearance of impropriety.
Tatenhove, who officially resigned his seat Monday to assume the deanship, had served in the Eastern District of Kentucky since 2006.
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