George Mason quickly changes name of Scalia law school after Twitter mocks '#ASSLaw' acronym

By Ciara McCarthy, The Guardian

The university’s original name change spurred a fair amount of ridicule accompanied by the hashtag #ASSLaw on Twitter

George Mason University has adjusted the moniker of its law school just days after renaming it in honor of late US supreme court Justice Antonin Scalia, a decision that gave the institution an unfortunate acronym: “Ass.”

The Virginia college announced on Thursday that the school’s new name would be the Antonin Scalia School of Law at George Mason University. The name change spurred a fair amount of ridicule accompanied by the hashtag #ASSLaw on Twitter.

The official name remains the Antonin Scalia School of Law, although the school’s website and marketing materials have recently been tweaked to the Antonin Scalia Law School, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the change. A spokesperson for the school declined to comment on the name change to the newspaper.

The university changed the law school’s name at the request of an anonymous donor who gave $20m to the school. Scalia’s longtime friend and colleague Ruth Bader Ginsburg praised the school’s new title in a statement last week.

“It is a tribute altogether fitting that George Mason University’s law school will bear his name,” Ginsburg said. “May the funds for scholarships, faculty growth, and curricular development aid the Antonin Scalia School of Law to achieve the excellence characteristic of Justice Scalia, grand master in life and law.”