I didn’t think it was possible for Stanford University to sink any lower into the woke abyss, but they have found a way. This week the Stanford Law Federalist Society invited Fifth Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan to speak. A mob of students decided to heckle him such that he could not speak.
Judge Duncan requested that an administrator come and address the situation, and hence arrived Tirien Steinbach, Stanford’s Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Who then took the side of the heckling students, lecturing Judge Duncan about how his rulings and views inflicted “harm” on Stanford’s students.
Here is the shocking nine-minute video.
I submit this as Exhibit One in the case for why every DEI office should be abolished at every university. It makes obvious that “inclusion” doesn’t include any non-woke view. Ed Whalen, who broke the story, comments:
In the course of her prepared remarks, Steinbach paid lip service to Stanford’s policy on free speech. But she repeatedly questioned whether the policy was sound and should be reconsidered. Worse, she used the platform she seized from him to contend, ludicrously, that he “literally denies the humanity of people.” Showing no understanding of free-speech principles, she posited that Judge Duncan had the duty to offer remarks that would be so valuable as to offset the harm that his mere presence was inflicting on the community.
Judge Duncan then tried to continue with the event, but further disruptions, I’m told, brought a quick end to it.
If Stanford law school genuinely cares about free speech, Tirien Steinbach should soon be looking for another job. (Whelan reports further that there were five law school administrators present, who did nothing. They should be summarily dismissed, too.)
P.S. I expect this makes Judge Duncan a lock for the next opening on the Supreme Court under President DeSantis in 2025.
P.S. (2). The Berkeley Law Federalist Society regularly hosts conservative federal appellate judges every semester. There has never been an episode like this—not even the hint of potential heckling. If there are any adults left in Stanford’s administration, they ought to let that contrast sink in.
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