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A D.C. appellate judge urged his colleagues to consider barring Yale University students who shout down speakers on campus from clerkships, in an email sent to fellow judges and published by lawyer David Lat on his Substack.
According to reporting by National Review:
Judge Laurence Silberman of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals emailed all Article III judges on Thursday, according to Lat, following news that about 100 Yale Law School students protested a panel discussion on civil liberties. The disruption of the panel event, hosted by the Yale Federalist Society, was reported by the Washington Free Beacon.
“The latest events at Yale Law School, in which students attempted to shout down speakers participating in a panel discussion on free speech, prompt me to suggest that students who are identified as those willing to disrupt any such panel discussion should be noted,” Judge Silberman wrote in the email.
“All federal judges—and all federal judges are presumably committed to free speech—should carefully consider whether any student so identified should be disqualified from potential clerkships,” the judge added.
Several other judges responded to Judge Silberman in an email chain.
“Thank you for your email. I couldn’t agree more,” said Judge John Walker of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, according to Slate.
“How would we as judges all over the country know about the activities of a particular student. Shouldn’t there be a finding that a student acted inappropriately at least by the institution of higher learning,” Florida district judge Donald Graham replied. “I don’t intend to get into the fact finding process.”
Judge Donald Graham, another GHWB nominee who serves on a district court in Florida, responded: "Shouldn't there be a finding that a student acted inappropriately at least by the institution of higher learning. I don't intend to get into the fact finding process." pic.twitter.com/X6yUc5UrnL
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) March 17, 2022
The Yale panel that the judge was referring to was designed to show that speakers from different political and cultural positions could all support free speech. The speakers on the panel were Monica Miller, the legal director of the American Humanist Association, and Kristen Waggoner, the general counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom.
Footage of the panel obtained by the Washington Free Beacon showed student protesters arguing with panelists and holding signs in protest of the event.
WATCH:
Yale law professor Kate Stith attempted to tell the protesters not to interrupt the panel, but her attempts failed. One protester told Stith she would “literally fight you, bitch.” Stith responded to the comments by telling the demonstrators that they should “grow up.”
After the protesters finally left the room at Stith’s urging, the students stomped on the floor, banged on the walls, and shouted in an attempt to disrupt the panel.
“It was disturbing to witness law students whipped into a mindless frenzy,” Waggoner told the Washington Free Beacon. “I did not feel it was safe to get out of the room without security.”
Source: National Review
