Call it "Shattered Glass: The Sequel." At a hearing this week, the California Supreme Court will be asked by the state Committee of Bar Examiners to deny a law license to Stephen Glass, the serial fabricator who as a twentysomething aspiring journalist disgraced the New Republic magazine and inspired a film. The court should grant Glass the license and allow him to hang up his shingle.
A review panel found "overwhelming evidence" that the Georgetown law graduate, who passed bar examinations in California and New York and who is now in his 40s, has rehabilitated himself. But the bar examiners insist that his conduct "has not been exemplary when balanced against the magnitude of his acts of deceit." He thus lacks the "positive moral character" required of members of the bar.
There's no question that Glass committed journalistic malpractice on an epic scale. Between 1996 and 1998, he churned out dozens of wholly or partly fictitious articles. And that's not all. To deflect suspicion, he falsified notes and created a fake website and business cards. In its brief, the Committee of Bar Examiners describes Glass' deceptions in excruciating detail, and for good measure imputes racism to him. (The examiners claim that one article portrayed African American taxi drivers as "lazy and lecherous.")
