The Pushback by Lawyers and Judges to Stanford Law Students' Maoist Tantrum Over Federal Judge's Attempted Lecture Must Have Been Significant
The practice of law is often more of a guild than a profession, a guild that zealously guards admission to its ranks. When applicants to that guild act in a way that violates the mores and standards of that group, possibly bringing disrepute upon the guild, or more likely, when that behavior possibly damages the guild's ability to extract fees from both sides of the political aisle because of an explicit appearance of ideological bias, the guild's gatekeepers will step in and make it clear that those mores are indeed standards.
Still, it’s depressing to see that in an era where college students are often compelled in their schools’ first-year orientations to be indoctrinated in Marxist-based Critical Race Theory before even attending their first classes that one of the country’s most highly regarded law schools has to make a special effort to train students in “freedom of speech and the norms of the legal profession.”
The norm of both sides in a legal dispute getting a fair hearing was established in America even before the United States was a country. I wonder how many of those petulant Stanford law students know that before he signed the Declaration of Independence, as a practicing attorney John Adams represented the British soldiers accused of murder in the Boston Massacre.
Jenny Martinez, the law school’s dean, said in a Wednesday morning memo to all law students that administrators “should not insert themselves into debate with their own criticism of the speaker’s views.” At future talks, the role of administrators will be to “ensure that university rules on disruption of events will be followed,” Martinez said.
Martinez gave no additional details on the terms of Steinbach’s leave, stating that the “university does not comment publicly on pending personnel matters.” She also ruled out disciplining any of the students who shouted down Duncan—in part, she said, because administrators sent “conflicting signals about whether what was happening was acceptable or not.”Instead, the law school will require all students to attend a training on “freedom of speech and the norms of the legal profession,” which will discuss, among other things, how “vulgar personal insults” can harm students’ “professional reputations.”
That warning appears to be in reference to protesters who hurled sexual invective at Duncan, with one allegedly telling him, “We hope your daughters get raped.” It comes amid calls from Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and others for state bar associations to investigate the hecklers, which could potentially hold up their legal licenses.
Martinez did not respond to a request for comment.
The memo is the latest effort by Stanford administrators to end a weeks-long public relations nightmare.