Stanford’s DEI Dean “On Leave”; No Students Will Be Sanctioned

This afternoon Dean Jenny Martinez of Stanford Law School released a 10-page memorandum about the shameful Judge Duncan affair laying out the “next steps” regarding protests and freedom of speech. It is not until page 8 that we learn the most significant news—that “Associate Dean Tirien Steinbach is currently on leave.” Hopefully this is a prelude to her dismissal not only for her role in this specific matter, but for the obvious problem that Steinbach is out of harmony with the principles of freedom of expression Dean Martinez summarizes in her memo, not to mention California state law protecting freedom of expression on campus that Dean Martinez references at great length.

But there is one problem: previously Dean Martinez had recommended to students, and Federalist Society members in particular, that they seek out Dean Steinbach for “counseling” about the disturbance. Who are Federalist Society members going to see for counseling now? This new memorandum doesn’t say.

Equally relevant is that no students are going to be punished or sanctioned for their bad behavior, although this is understandable given that Dean Steinbach and other Stanford Law administrators and faculty encouraged the bad behavior. Stanford could hardly punish students without also punishing its own senior staff.

Instead:

[W]ith respect to the students involved in the protest, several factors lead me to conclude that what is appropriate here is mandatory educational programming for our student body rather than referring specific students for disciplinary sanction.

But it turns out everyone will need re-programming:

Accordingly, as one first step the law school will be holding a mandatory half-day session in spring quarter for all students on the topic of freedom of speech and the norms of the legal profession. [Boldface in original.]

You might have thought that at a premier law school, students would ave learned the meaning of the First Amendment in their regular coursework, but apparently not. But I guess we’ve come to the point where Stanford Law students need remedial education.

Aaron Sibarium has more at the Free Beacon.

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