Trump judges want to block legal jobs for law students who disrupt campus speakers
Kaelan Deese
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A pair of federal appeals court judges are speaking out about law school protests that violate campus policies, arguing potential employers should be informed if students act out of line.
Judge James Ho of the 5th Circuit and 11th Circuit Judge Elizabeth Branch wrote an op-ed for the National Review sending a dire warning following disruptions to 5th Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan’s disrupted speech at Stanford Law School, arguing, “Our country won’t work unless citizens agree on the basic terms of our democracy.”
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“And if schools are unwilling to impose consequences themselves, at a minimum they should identify the disrupters so that future employers know who they are hiring,” the judges wrote ahead of their planned appearance at Yale Law School on Wednesday.
The pair of judges were just the latest to respond to the disruption of Duncan’s March 9 appearance at Stanford, which went viral after videos emerged of students talking over and heckling the judge to the point where he couldn’t deliver his planned remarks at an event titled “The Fifth Circuit in Conversation with the Supreme Court: Covid, Guns, and Twitter.”
The students who shouted and verbally berated Duncan were allegedly upset with his rulings surrounding the subjects of the event. Stanford University officials later apologized in a letter to Duncan, writing, “What happened was inconsistent with our policies on free speech.”
Ho, who has previously spoken out against alleged censorship practices at Georgetown Law and attracted attention for his boycott of hiring future clerks from Yale, added in the op-ed that “nobody wants to be vindictive.”
“But rules aren’t rules without consequences. And make no mistake: Administrators who promote intolerance don’t belong in legal education. And students who practice intolerance don’t belong in the legal profession,” the pair of Trump-appointed judges wrote.
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The judges ultimately warned that if students are not held accountable, more employers could take the initiative to stop hiring from prestigious law schools.
“Law schools know what their options are. They know they can suspend or expel students for engaging in disruptive tactics, or threaten to report negatively on a student’s character and fitness to state bar examiners,” the pair added.