Last year, federal judges came forward and said they would no longer hire clerks who attended Yale Law School over a slew of “high-profile free speech scandals,” including one incident where students protested Kristien Waggoner, a religious liberty lawyer who has won Supreme Court cases, according to the Washington Free Beacon. The “rowdy protest” against Waggoner caused so much disruption that the panelists, Waggoner being one of them, were escorted out of the building.
Now, another law school faces a similar boycott. Following a “woke” student protest against a conservative federal appeals court judge last month, two federal circuit court judges, both appointed by former President Donald Trump, announced that they would no longer hire clerks from Stanford Law School. The same judges, James Ho and Elizabeth Branch, took part in the boycott against Yale last year.
"We will not hire any student who chooses to attend Stanford Law School in the future," Ho, who sits on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, said in a speech to the Texas Review of Law and Politics. A transcript of the speech was reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.
Last month, a group of Stanford students and Tirian Steinbach, the Stanford Law dean of diversity, equity and inclusion, heckled Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge S. Kyle Duncan. The school did not discipline the students who took part in the protest, called him “scum” and shouted remarks like, “we hope your daughters get raped,” according to the Washington Free Beacon:
Though Steinbach is on leave, Stanford has ruled out disciplining the hecklers, who by Stanford's own admission violated the school's free speech policy.
"Rules aren't rules without consequences," Ho said. "And students who practice intolerance don't belong in the legal profession."
Calling the disruption an act of "intellectual terrorism," Ho argued that Duncan's treatment reflects "rampant" viewpoint discrimination at elite law schools, some of which do not employ a single center-right professor. It is no coincidence, Ho said, that the worst free speech incidents have occurred at the law schools with the least intellectual diversity. Though Ho did not say what it would take for him to lift the boycott, he implied that a more politically diverse faculty—and a less ideologically uniform administration—would go a long way.
"How do we know everyone's views will be protected," he asked, "if everyone's views aren't represented?"
According to multiple outlets, the Stanford students accused Duncan and his “anti-gay rights legal record of causing ‘harm’ to students.” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) called on the university to punish the students who took part in the protest (via Daily Mail):
Duncan was greeted with posters along the walls of the prestigious university - saying he had committed crimes against women, gays, blacks and 'trans people' in reference to a case.
He was asked to give a speech at the famous law school earlier in March about the circuit's Court of Appeals by the student chapter of the conservative Federalist Society but was met with abuse.
Steinbach, who encouraged the protest, was placed on leave. In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, she defended her actions against Duncan and said that she was trained to “[get] the parties to look past conflict and see each other as people.”
“My intention wasn’t to confront Judge Duncan or the protesters but to give voice to the students so that they could stop shouting and engage in respectful dialogue. I wanted Judge Duncan to understand why some students were protesting his presence on campus and for the students to understand why it was important that the judge be not only allowed but welcomed to speak,” she claimed.
According to the New York Post, as for the Yale boycott, Ho said his “concern is how law students are treating everyone else they disagree with. I’m concerned about what this is doing to the legal profession—and to our country.”
“Students learn all the wrong lessons. They practice all the wrong tactics. And then they graduate and bring these tactics to workplaces across the country. What happens on campus doesn’t stay on campus. And it’s tearing our country apart,” he added.