William C. Bradford

For other people named William Bradford, see William Bradford (disambiguation).

William C. Bradford was a professor of law, specializing in international law, federal Indian law, property, national security/foreign relations law, and the laws of armed conflict.

Vita

Bradford graduated summa cum laude from the University of Miami School of Law, where he served as project editor of the University of Miami Law Review and was a member of the Order of the Coif. He also received an LL.M. from Harvard University and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University. He is Chiricahua Apache Indian and served as Ambassador to the U.N. for the Miami Tribe of Indians of Indiana.

His doctoral thesis was "United States foreign policy decision-making in Arab-Israeli crises: The association of United States presidential personality constructs with political and military crisis outcomes", 1995 (AAT 9537394)

Teaching at Indiana University

Bradford joined the faculty of Indiana University School of Law Indianapolis in the fall of 2002 after serving in the Army Reserve. He also served at the War Gaming and Simulation Center, National Defense University, Fort McNair, Virginia, and was an advisor to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Shalikashvili.

Bradford has authored over 13 law review articles on international law, the laws of war, and federal Indian law. One of his articles was published in the Notre Dame Law Review, v. 79, (2004), titled, "The Duty to Defend Them: A Natural Legal Justification of the Bush Doctrine of Preventative War". He was also a frequent commentator in local and national media on laws of war issues regarding Iraq and the War on Terror. For instance, on December 16, 2003, he was the top guest on The Big Story With John Gibson, commenting on the tactics interrogators were likely to use on the just-captured Saddam Hussein. He was named a Dean's Fellow in recognition of scholarly excellence in both 2004-2005 and 2005-2006.

Before resigning from Indiana University (see below), he was one of fewer than fifteen tenured or tenure-track academic legal faculty members of American Indian origin in the U.S.

Tenure controversy

In 2005 Bradford accused Professor Florence Roisman of opposing his tenure because of some of his conservative views. The official reason given was that Prof. Bradford was "uncollegial." The feud became a national one when Fox News and FrontPage magazine.com, among others, continually reported on the controversy. Bradford claimed that his support of the Iraq War and his refusal to sign a letter in defense of Ward Churchill were contributing factors. "The presumption was that I've got to sign this thing because I'm an Indian, but I can't do that," he said. Roisman has denied most of Bradford's claims and school administrators pointed out that Bradford never actually applied for tenure; however, Bradford did apply for tenure on March 24, 2005, and the university failed to act upon his application. In a straw poll to determine his possible future tenure, the vote was 10-5 in favor, which meant that five professors believed that Dr. Bradford had a low probability of receiving tenure. He did not get the unanimous votes his tenured colleagues typically received. Although unanimity is not required for a faculty to award tenure, such a significant dissent would normally block it.

Military Service and Discharge

Several bloggers have claimed that Bradford claimed he served in the infantry and military intelligence during Desert Storm and Bosnia conflicts, that he eventually became a major in Special Forces, and was awarded the prestigious Silver Star. Others have claimed that Bradford frequently wore a Silver Star lapel pin around campus and had a major's gold-leaf insignia plate on his vehicle. But Bradford's service record he was actually in the Army Reserve and despite seven years of service he was discharged weeks after September 11, 2001, as a second lieutenant. The publicly available record of his personnel file shows no active duty, branch as intelligence, and no awards.

Resignation

On December 2, 2005, Susanah Mead, interim dean of the law school, released the following statement: "Professor William Bradford has resigned his position as associate professor at the IU School of Law – Indianapolis effective January 1, 2006 to pursue other employment opportunities and interests."

Future after Indiana

In February 2005 Bradford was hired to teach the fall 2005 semester as a visiting professor at the College of William and Mary. Health problems prevented him from traveling to New Zealand in the spring of 2006 as planned.

Bradford graduates in May with an MBA from the Warrington College of Business at the University of Florida.

References