Monday, January 28, 2008

Do Democratic Presidents Go to Law School?

I was talking with a fellow student the other day and the topic of presidents and law schools arose. It was, honestly, something I had never thought of, so I decided to investigate for myself. How many Democratic presidents went to law school? Contrary to what I originally thought, few Democratic presidents graduated from law school.

There have been seven Democratic presidents since 1900. Of these seven, went to law school, but only one (Clinton), graduated. Interestingly enough, three are actually members of a state bar (Wilson, FDR, and Clinton). Of the fourth president who attended law school (Truman), he actually never received a bachelor's degree. So USF law crowd, harboring any political ambitions? Just look at the list below. It, clearly, does not take a law school degree to become president. By those standards, you're overachieving. I mean, come on law school students, you must be able to do better than an MBA grad.

List of Democratic Party Presidents since 1900 and where (if) they went to grad school.

Woodrow Wilson, one year of law school at the University of Virginia, dropped out, but later passed the Georgia State Bar. The obtained a Ph. D. in history and political science at John Hopkins University.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, Columbia Law School (never graduated, but passed the New York State Bar)

Harry Truman, two years of law school at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (interestingly enough, he did not receive an undergraduate education.)

John F. Kennedy, no law school, attended Harvard undergrad, then audited business classes at Stanford

Lyndon B. Johnson, no law school, undergraduate at Southwest Texas State Teacher’s College

Jimmy Carter, no law degree, undergraduate completed at the United States Naval Academy

Bill Clinton, Yale Law School

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