He may not be a household name. But, when it comes to gravitas in moral philosophy, Luke Gormally is at the top of any list of premier international bioethicists. Gormally himself put his name to another list - the petition to reinstate a group of professors recently booted by Ave Maria School of Law. These professors dared to respectfully question Tom Monaghan's governance of the School, and were axed (1,2,series).

What makes this a story is the courage that it took for Gormally to add his name to this public list. He not only holds a position in the John Paul II Institute for Marriage & Family in Australia, but is also a Research Fellow at the highly regarded Linacre Centre in London. The Centre is directly tied to Ave Maria. Linacre's Board of Governors includes none other than AMSL's Dean Bernard Dobranski, the architect of the aforementioned faculty firings. According to AMSL's IRS-990 (2005), the School gave over $100,000 to the Centre for a "funded senior research fellowship".

Gormally added his name to over 275 other AMSL signatures, creating a powerful statement where the majority of Law School alumni reject the dysfunctional administration of Dean Bernard Dobranski and his conflict-laden Board Chairman Tom Monaghan.