(FiveNation.com)- Last week, 5th Circuit Court Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan was shouted down by a group of protesting Stanford law students while he was attempting to give a speech to the campus chapter of the Federalist Society.
The screaming law students accused Duncan of being a threat to the rights of blacks, women, immigrants, and LGBT individuals.
When Judge Duncan asked the administrators present at his speech to restore order, Stanford Law’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Dean Angela Steinbach gave the hecklers a half-hearted reminder about the school’s free speech policy prohibiting the disruption of speakers.
But the hecklers continued and Steinbach did nothing more to stop them. Instead, she expressed her support for their demand that the school’s free speech policy be reconsidered in this particular case given the “harm” caused by Judge Duncan’s appearance, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Describing the incident as a “bizarre therapy session from hell,” Judge Duncan told the Free Beacon that, as someone with a lifetime appointment to the bench, he didn’t need anyone’s pity. What he did find outrageous about last week’s incident, however, is that the Federalist Society student members are being “treated like dogshit” by their fellow students and Stanford’s administrators.
Duncan also described the students as “idiots” and “bullies,” according to Reuters.
After the incident prompted a cascade of outrage from many legal academics, including Jonathan Turley, Stanford was forced to apologize to Judge Duncan.
In a March 11 letter, Stanford president Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Law School Dean Jenny Martinez apologized to Duncan for the disruptive students, saying their behavior was “inconsistent with our policies on free speech.”
While not mentioning Steinbach directly, Tessier-Lavigne and Martinez said in their letter that some staff members “intervened in inappropriate ways.”
On Tuesday, Elon Musk quote-tweeted the Free Beacon’s report, adding that parents of students at “elite high schools & colleges” like Stanford are unaware of the “Soviet level of indoctrination” at those institutions.
