Stanford Law School was hardly a Bastian of free speech recently. Students shouted down the speech of Judge Kyle Duncan, a Trump appointee to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. They called him a racist and yelled out profanities.
What’s worse is that the administrator on the scene — Associate Dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion Tirien Steinbach — did not try to get things under control. She made the situation worse.
Instead of trying to restore order, Steinbach lectured Duncan about how “uncomfortable” he made her and the students because some of his decisions allegedly “[deny] the humanity of people.
Duncan had to be ushered out by federal marshals in the interest of keeping him safe.
It seems like “woke” students know that they can shut people down and not face any consequences on today’s campuses.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is calling on Stanford to hold the students who were involved accountable for their actions.
“It was deeply disturbing to watch the viral video that captured Stanford Law students harassing and insulting Judge Kyle Duncan, a sitting federal circuit judge, who had been invited by the school’s Federalist Society chapter to speak at a school-sanctioned event,” Cruz said in a letter to the administration of the law school.
Cruz also wrote in the letter, “This disgraceful behavior is antithetical to the principles of free speech and open discourse that are essential to the mission of any credible academic institution, let alone a top-tier law school. Such behavior also clearly violates Stanford Law School’s Campus Disruption Policy. As such, Stanford Law School is well within its rights to discipline these students for their behavior, and indeed, I strongly urge the school to do so. Indeed, failing to identify and discipline the students responsible for this reprehensible conduct will only encourage such behavior in the future.”
And the senator called for action against the dean as well, he said she “thrust herself into the limelight during the allotted time of the event, stole the microphone for over six minutes, and proceeded to chastise and condescend to Judge Duncan with the aid of her own pre-prepared remarks. Given her demonstrated contempt for the federal bench, guests of the school, and your own institution’s policies, I recommend that she is promptly dismissed from her position.”
