by Eric Lendrum
In the aftermath of unruly protests by far-left activists at Stanford Law School, two federal judges have now publicly declared that they will not hire clerks from the law school.
According to the Daily Caller, U.S. Circuit Court judges James Ho and Elizabeth Branch said that they have imposed hiring moratoriums on law clerks from Stanford, after a protest in March saw law students and several faculty members shout down and ultimately chase out Judge Kyle Duncan, a Trump-appointed judge on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, at a Federalist Society event.
“We will not hire any student who chooses to attend Stanford Law School in the future,” said Judge Ho on Saturday evening.
In the aftermath of the protest, both Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Stanford Law School Dean Jenny Martínez ultimately were forced to issue apologies to Judge Duncan. The event on March 9th saw protesters swarm the stage and shout down Judge Duncan’s attempted speech, calling him a “scumbag and a liar.” Far-left groups on campus also distributed fliers ahead of the event falsely accusing Judge Duncan of “denying black Americans the right to vote.”
At least one faculty member, Tirien Steinbach, the school’s associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion, joined the students and even took the podium at the event to tell Judge Duncan that “your work has caused harm.”
In the apology sent to Judge Duncan, Tessier-Lavigne and Martinez said that “we are very clear with our students that, given our commitment to free expression, if there are speakers they disagree with, they are welcome to exercise their right to protest but not disrupt the proceedings.” Although they said that they are “taking steps to ensure that something like this does not happen again,” they stopped short of promising any disciplinary action against the students or Steinbach.
Judges Ho and Branch had previously announced a similar hiring moratorium on law clerks from Yale Law, where conservative speakers have also faced “cancellations and disruptions” by far-left activists.
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Eric Lendrum graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he was the Secretary of the College Republicans and the founding chairman of the school’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter.
Photo “Elizabeth Branch” by Hypotheticaljurisdiction. CC BY-SA 4.0. Photo “James Ho” by The Federalist Society. Background Photo “Stanford Law School” by Stanford Law School.
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I fully agree with these judges. I suspect law students from the far left law schools might find securing associate attorney positions upon graduation to become difficult as well. These students who should know better, thy should know there are consequences to their behavior while in school. These schools, self-proclaimed elite institutions, and their faculty staff should advise students better. Shouting down someone with a different political is pure nonsense and does not speak too highly of their character or training in the fair application of law. To the involved students, you are an embarrassment to alumni such as myself. I have taken a position where I longer donate money to the school in their alumni fund raising drives.