Posted on 03/19/2022 12:00:40 AM PDT by MarvinStinson
A federal judge has encouraged all of his colleagues to "carefully consider" whether the Yale Law School students who attempted to shout down a bipartisan panel on free speech "should be disqualified from potential clerkships."
D.C. Circuit judge Laurence Silberman sent an email on Thursday to all federal judges in the United States, urging them to take the fracas at the nation's top law school seriously.
"The latest events at Yale Law School," Silberman wrote, "prompt me to suggest that students who are identified as those willing to disrupt any such panel discussion should be noted. 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 email set off a flurry of replies from Silberman's colleagues, several of whom expressed interest in discussing the matter further.
"I don't know where I come out on this yet," District Judge Eric Komitee of the Eastern District of New York wrote, "but agree this is a topic of tremendous societal importance."
The emails come amid revelations that the protest was even more disruptive than initially reported. According to Original Jurisdiction‘s David Lat, students in a federal courts class across the hall reported that the "floor was shaking," and students on a different floor could hear the din while they were taking an exam.
The law school also had to move a faculty meeting online because attendees couldn't hear anything over the tumult. Faculty at the meeting kept looking to Heather Gerken, the Dean of Yale Law School, to confront the protesters, according to Lat, but she did nothing.
After news of the protest broke, the law school released a statement on Thursday alleging that police were only "on hand" to ensure that the protesters quieted down, not to protect the safety of panelists. "Fortunately," the statement claims, police "assistance was not needed and the event went forward until its conclusion."
But audio from the panel indicates it was drowned out at several points by the protesters, whose chants went on for more than 10 minutes. The din drowns out Kristen Waggoner, the general counsel of the Alliance Defending Freedom, right as she begins speaking, and chants of "protect trans kids" make it extremely difficult to hear the panel for several minutes.
The audio also suggests that Yale police officers escorted the panelists to a patrol car outside out of concern for their safety—contradicting Yale's claim that the police only came to ensure the protesters quieted down.
"We think the protesters are going to try to follow us to lunch," Zack Austin, the president of the Yale Federalist Society, tells the panel's organizers after conferring with the officers, who say they have a "vehicle on site." So the panelists "are going to take the squad car and meet us at the restaurant," Austin explained.
Kristen Waggoner, the speaker who was the main target of the protest, confirmed that she and her co-panelist did indeed ride in the squad car after being escorted out of the building by Yale police. Members of the Federalist Society walked—though Austin instructed them to "take a very circuitous route."
As the students make their exit, protesters can be heard booing and shouting: "shame, shame."
“The latest events at Yale Law School,” Silberman wrote, “prompt me to suggest that students who are identified as those willing to disrupt any such panel discussion should be noted.
Their instructors should be noted, also.
‘all is fair in love and war’, wrote John Lyly in 1578.
If one does not believe that we are in a war with the rabid left in this country then continue in your fantasy while the rest of us fight the fires they set.
They hate us. We need to go ahead and start dividing assets and live separately.
I for one am very grateful that President Trump got all these people to take off their masks, throw them on the ground, and stomp on them.
Life is too short and too complicated to waste time and energy on people who refuse reason and embrace hatred. Hatred for themselves first, and the rest of us second.
Every thought, moment of time, and exertion of energy spent trying to get these foul people to change comes at the expense of thought, time, and effort better spent for those who deserve it.
The names of the protestors have been duly noted. Expect them to receive appointments to prominent government posts or directly to the federal courts (why bother with clerkships?) by the Biden administration. These aren’t unruly students, they’re future Democratic party leaders.
This should have started with Hillary and Bill Clinton.
The kids in college are a product of their educations and thus most are taught to protest from an early age.
The only way to fix colleges to dimish the value of said college(s) degree(s).
This is an eye-opening mement for Free Speech.
Now if Bill Gates would defund MSNBC.
Sometimes the Constitution has no place in an agruement except for a reference point. Filled away. The Constitution according to Yale’s students is a Living Document that Evolves with the ideals of those who hold the ideals and the ideals can be put into power once those who have them have power.
Forget for a moment the legal document because if it were revelant to this discussion beyond mentioning it is not taken seriously by the DNC who would burn it if they touch it.
We are talking about ideas. You are talking about a one sided viewpoint.
Just deal with the right and wrong aspects based on what is fair. And I am not talking about “fairgame”.
Accepted? I'm asking you whether your interpretation of the First Amendment permits or prohibits the speech in question?
They were pushing their perverse agenda of trans crap. You and people like you are the reason this kind of Society wrecking behavior is tolerated
Tolerated? Why don't you ask me how I feel about the Bill of Rights? Does your definition of the First Amendment permit or prohibit speech by me or anyone else beyond your latest brain fart?
It’s about time, but they should also push for EXPELLING the trouble makers
A judge who is afraid to judge - how quaint. /s
You point to a central conundrum for conservatives. The Constitution which we demand the state adhere to clearly prescribes a policy of laissez-faire in matters described in the article, yet monsters are the ones taking advantage of this freedom. There is no fix for this, legislatively or otherwise. The Founders understood that freedom will only really exist if the people have a sense of self-government, a concept utterly alien to modern America. There is no outside corrective for the little monster embryonic lawyers Yale is hatching. The spirit of liberty has been abolished from their souls.
That is, can the left when they get power ban conservatives because of their right-wing politics?
How can you even consider this as a hypothetical question? This is SOP for the left.
You would almost have a point except that the objective of the exercise (working through a degree program) is to produce exactly the graduate work which is intended to be submitted to the scrutiny of career gate-keepers. It's the whole point of a law student's "academic career", and they've all tacitly submitted themselves to that scrutiny. Imagine the following interview for a clerk's position:
"So, I see you attended an Ivy League institution. Tell me about what you did there."
"Well, I started a lot of fires, not just little fires in trashcans, but big ones! With mattresses and tires and stuff!"
"I see. Well, what kind of work did you do?"
"I mostly punched people who didn't look like they could fight back and screamed at people who looked like the could. There was a lot of running away, too."
"No, I mean, what was your academic capstone project?"
"Oh, I wanted to examine the environmental interaction between the adhoc subculture of the jury and the larger gestalt of the local surrounding community from which they were drawn with regards to physical and psychological influence."
"Oh, huh. And how did that work?"
"I experimented by going to public debates in which the debaters would serve as analogues to empaneled jurists and threw rocks through windows from both the outside AND the inside to see if it produced and different effects and the course of the debate."
"I hope that isn't something you'd still do in our courtroom!"
"Oh, no. I've grow a lot since then."
"Good!"
"Yeah, today I would block all the fire escapes, hit the gallery with teargas, dox the jury, and SWAT the legal team of the defendant/complainant/prosecution or whatever."
I don't know about you, but I would not give this applicant and even, fair chance at the job.
My point exactly. Thank you!
Our job as constitutional conservatives is to insist on an objective standard according to the Constitution so that when the left tries to turn that standard against us we have a defensible position.
You are quite right that our laissez-faire or libertarian instincts often leave us vulnerable but to abandon them is to cede the ground to the left.
At some point in the future, these students will lie under oath and swear to uphold the Constitution of the United States.
Not because of their left wing politics, because of their behavior.
Are we saying that we can take state action against them, i.e. an official policy of federal judges, agents of the state, not to hire Yale graduates because they protested, do we not open ourselves to the same disqualification? Suppose the government says that no one who legally protested on January 6 is entitled to a federal job? What about their rights to petition the government, their rights to free speech?
I did not interpret that as a call for an official policy of not hiring them, but a suggestion that caution should be applied if considering them. They are likely to be a toxic element. Leftist judges will undoubtedly seek them out as fellow travelers.
Should all January 6 protesters who broke no law be disqualified from federal jobs if the president "suggests" it?
But he’s announcing it like they do with Trump’s attorneys or Jan 6th protesters.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.