NRO’s Nate Hochman obtained a copy of Fifth Circuit Judge James Ho’s keynote address to the Kentucky Chapters Conference of the Federalist Society and reports on it in “Federal Judge Vows to Stop Hiring Law Clerks from Yale Law School.” Judge Ho’s address — “Agreeing to Disagree — Restoring America by Resisting Cancel Culture” — cited a number of high-profile examples of speakers being shouted down or otherwise censored at law schools across the country but singled out Yale Law as “one particular law school where cancellations and disruptions seem to occur with special frequency.”
We covered the events at Yale Law School in some detail on Power Line. Yale’s Professor Kate Stith — a college classmate whom I greatly admire — has fought the culture, but the culture won. Judge Ho now vows to impose consequences.
Reuters also reports on Judge Ho’s speech here. Reuters reporter Nate Raymond recalls that “Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Laurence Silberman of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, an appointee of former Republican President Ronald Reagan, had in March called on judges to think twice about bringing on Yale students who disrupted Waggoner’s event.” We noted Judge Silberman’s message To all Article III Judges at the time. To adapt Lincoln’s eulogy of Henry Clay, Laurence Silberman represents my beau ideal of a judge.
Hochman’s story is behind NRO’s paywall. His tweeted summary is below.
NEW: The Fifth Circuit’s James Ho says he’s no longer hiring clerks from Yale Law—and urges other judges to join him.
“If they want the closed and intolerant environment that Yale embraces today, that’s their call,” Ho said. “I want nothing to do with it.”https://t.co/q4OLS4TzJc
— Nate Hochman (@njhochman) September 29, 2022
Ho, who sits on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, has made waves in the past for his vocal criticisms of campus culture. When Georgetown Law suspended @ishapiro, the judge delivered a surprise defense of Shapiro during an event on Georgetown’s campus:https://t.co/6OklqgSgVZ
— Nate Hochman (@njhochman) September 29, 2022
But he also emphasized the need for substantive measures—above and beyond simply “speaking out”—to fight back.
“We’re not just citizens,” he said. “We’re also customers…I wonder how a law school would feel, if my fellow federal judges and I stopped being its customers.”
— Nate Hochman (@njhochman) September 29, 2022
Another example Ho pointed to: In 2021, “Yale administrators threatened to destroy” the career of a law student who described his apartment as a “trap house,” saying “his membership in the Federalist Society was ‘very triggering for students.’”https://t.co/kDoMMyW1VV
— Nate Hochman (@njhochman) September 29, 2022
“Starting today, I will no longer hire law clerks from Yale Law School,” Ho said. “And I hope that other judges will join me as well.”
“I certainly reserve the right to add other schools in the future,” he added. “But my sincere hope is that I won’t have to.”
— Nate Hochman (@njhochman) September 29, 2022
“If nothing else, my colleagues and I will at least send the message that other schools should not follow in Yale’s footsteps,” Judge Ho said.
Our exclusive report on Ho’s remarks @NROhttps://t.co/q4OLS4T1TE
— Nate Hochman (@njhochman) September 29, 2022
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