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MAY 2003 : (CUNY LAW SCHOOL STUDENTS ATTEMPT TO AWARD ATTORNEY LYNNE STEWART THE SCHOOL'S 'PUBLIC INTEREST LAWYER OF THE YEAR' AWARD AT THEIR GRADUATION CEREMONIES- CUNY'S CRIMINAL LAW SOCIETY HONORED HER INSTEAD AT A PRIVATE CEREMONY) Stewart has absolutely no remorse for what she did, and plays the martyr’s role to perfection: “…don't ask me what I was doing! Ask what the government was doing listening in!” she told WW3 Report. “…They suckered me…I really see it all as part of the right-wing parade orchestrated by Bush [* My note: at the time she was taped, Clinton was president, not Bush] and Ashcroft [* My note: at the time she was taped, Janet Reno was the Attorney General, not Ashcroft] , which really masks their economic goals, to exploit the Third World and divert Americans' attention from the fact that our economy seems to be tanking right now. If I am the poster-child now for the anti-Ashcroft forces, I'm happy to be that.”
These kinds of sentiments only encouraged leftist law students at the City University of New York to attempt to present her with the school’s Public Interest Lawyer of the Year award at graduation ceremonies last month. A group of students gave administrators a petition containing 73 names—more than half of the graduating class—in an effort to reward Stewart for her betrayal of her country and its citizens. This turned out to be an award too far, however. After the award was leaked to the press, CUNY law school dean Kristin Booth Glen informed students via e-mail that Stewart would not be honored because that “could lead to consequences that could be damaging.”
This brought out the martyrs brigade again. Kathryn Hudson, the CUNY law student who spearheaded the effort to fete Stewart, fumed, “If you can’t have free speech at a law school, where can you have it?” Said graduate student, Kavita Pawria, “There is an irrational fear being used to suppress civil liberties.”
Stewart herself got into the act, saying, “The students seem to carry on a long tradition of reminding institutions of their responsibilities. They are willing to take the risk, but Dean Glen apparently is not.”
Stewart ended up feeling quite feted, however, as CUNY’s Criminal Law Society honored her at a private ceremony prior to graduation. Considering CUNY law students’ abysmal 50 percent passage rate on the bar exam, engineering this small victory was quite resourceful.
-- " Cheerleaders for Terrorism: Radical lawyer Lynne Stewart continues her support for Islamic terror ," By Erick Stakelbeck, FrontPageMagazine.com, Wednesday, June 17, 2003 posted June 18, 2003