If schools are universities are seen as indoctrination zones by the leftist education bureaucracy, law schools are radicalization camps. We've written in recent months about some of the deranged, illiberal madness that has gripped legacy 'elite' institutions like Georgetown and Stanford Law. It's time to add Columbia to the mix. It seems as though many students, identity 'affinity' groups, and even faculty have melted down over a mere neutral mention of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on the school's Instagram page.
Read on and see it for yourself. The ludicrous tantrum in the comment section is only the beginning. The Daily Wire has the cringeworthy details:
Columbia University law students and alums threw a tantrum over the mere mention of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on a school Instagram post, with students calling him a rapist as administrators egged them on. The incident, which followed a similar outburst at Stanford University’s School of Law, raises questions about whether high-priced, elite law schools are infantilizing people in their 20s and 30s and turning them into hardcore radicals with dubious grasp on the law and inability to even be near people with differing opinions. The outrage was over Columbia Law School simply noting on an Instagram post that some students who were part of the Federalist Society had gone to D.C. and spoke with Kavanaugh about the practice of law. Virtually all of the school’s many race-based groups said they will refuse to help the school recruit diverse students because of the post. “We believe that our school’s choice to platform Justice Kavanaugh is symbolic of a pattern of behavior that our organization does not and will not support and will not be affiliated with,” the Black Law Students Association wrote.
“We thank LALSA, NALSA, EWOC, OutLaws, QTPOC, IfWhenHow, APALSA, SALSA, and others, for joining us in this advocacy and struggle. We look forward to continued collaboration. By joining us in this effort, you have all helped put the administration on notice that we have a strong and growing collective,” it continued. The law school’s Empowering Women of Color group said it was “withdrawing our participation from Columbia Law School recruiting events” as a result of the post, demanding that “It is time for Columbia Law School to sharpen its politics.” “We cannot condone complicity with a man who is credibly accused of sexual assault,” it wrote. “The insinuation from the Communications Office that the post was neutral and just the Law School’s way of highlighting activities students are participating in is laughable and untrue. A post of this kind, with its caption, is a terrifying stamp of approval.” Luke Cronin, who was named a Davis Polk Leadership Fellow by Columbia and is an editor of the Columbia Law Review, commented on the law school’s post: “Kavanaugh sexually violated Dr. Ford.”
Here's the full article, and here's the 'offending' post. These law students lost their minds because some of their classmates met with a Supreme Court justice, and the school noted it. These alphabet soup, identity-fixated organizations say they are now boycotting Columbia recruitment efforts, which might actually bode well for the overall quality of applicant as long as it lasts. Their primary gripe (they'd invent other ones for the other conservative justices) is that Kavanaugh is a "credibly accused" sexual assailant, with a law review editor just asserting that Kavanaugh "sexually violated" his accuser. That's false. In reality, there is literally no evidence whatsoever that Kavanaugh and Ford ever even met, let alone that anything Ford claims actually happened. Her own father doesn't believe her. Her star witness, a childhood friend, has come out and said she no longer believes Ford's story, alleging that Ford allies pressured her to lie about Kavanaugh to help their cause. Columbia's mob either doesn't know or doesn't care about any of these facts. The facts are beyond the point.
That so many ostensibly top-notch Ivy League law students do not care at all about standards of evidence is as embarrassing as it is disturbing. These are future attorneys, judges and politicians who openly prize identity and politics over the law -- and censorship over free association and speech. Bleak stuff. Meanwhile, in a more run-of-the-mill spasm of intolerant illiberalism on campus, some leftists at George Mason University are demanding the cancelation of the school's commencement address. In case you missed it, the reason why some insisting the speaker be de-platformed and uninvited (others are just having general conniption fits over it) is that the speaker is...Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, that terrifying radical. Youngkin is the friendly, conservative governor of a blue state who's managed to build a +22 approval rating, yet the incessant angries are treating him like a dangerous Nazi, or whatever, which is apparently what they think of anyone to the right of an average Congressional Democrat. The free speech organization FIRE has urged students not to call for censorship (which is what they're doing, willfully obtuse spin from certain progressives notwithstanding):
FIRE encourages @GeorgeMasonU students to resist censorship and instead enter both their commencement ceremony and life after graduation with a willingness to engage ideas with which they may disagree. ➡️https://t.co/x04wIcCULG pic.twitter.com/CTbCxKFB2d
— FIRE (@TheFIREorg) March 28, 2023
It appears that the adults are actually adulting at Mason, rejecting the screams with a pat on the head and some laudable points about diversity of thought in a complex world. The shouters will shout, but it looks like they've lost this one. They would be well-advised to get both a grip and -- many people are saying -- a life.
