We haven’t heard much from Barack Obama about the 10/7 massacre or Iran’s missile assault on Israel. Former Obama wingman Eric Holder gives us a taste of what we are missing in the Washington Free Beacon story “Eric Holder Says Columbia’s Campus Agitators Have ‘Legitimate Concerns.'”
Both Obama and Holder are Columbia alumni. Collin notes the contradiction between Holder’s defense of the pro-Hamas campers at Columbia and the stated position of the Covington & Burling law firm, where he is senior counsel charging up to $2295 an hour for “racial equity audits”:
Holder’s defense of the Columbia protesters, who were violating university policy and shouting anti-Semitic slogans including “Globalize the intifada” and “NYPD, KKK, IDF, you’re all the same,” does not square with his law firm Covington & Burling’s decision late last year to sign a letter, along with dozens of white shoe firms, expressing zero-tolerance for the disruptive, anti-Semitic protests taking place on college and law school campuses across the country.
“As employers who recruit from each of your law schools, we look to you to ensure your students who hope to join our firms after graduation are prepared to be an active part of workplace communities that have zero tolerance policies for any form of discrimination or harassment, much less the kind that has been taking place on some law school campuses,” the letter stated.
Chants calling for “the death of Jews and the elimination of the state of Israel,” Covington and other firms said, are “anti-Semitic activities” that “would not be tolerated at any of our firms.”
Neither Holder nor Covington & Burling responded to Collin’s request for comment. On that point will have to fill in the blanks yourself.
The Free Beacon story concludes with this disclosure:
The Washington Free Beacon is a Covington & Burling client. But the firm, which once represented the Free Beacon in matters of defamation and employment, no longer does so after Covington partner Lindsay Burke and Of Counsel Jason Criss cited a conflict of interest given their discomfort with the Free Beacon’s coverage of Holder’s practice.
Neither Burke nor Criss responded to a request for comment regarding whether they share Holder’s view that the Columbia protesters have “legitimate concerns.”
With respect to “the Free Beacon’s coverage of Holder’s practice,” the disclosure links to a July 2023 story by Aaron Sibarium: “Starbucks Hired Eric Holder To Conduct a ‘Civil Rights Audit.’ The Policies He Blessed Got the Coffee Maker Sued.” It may be for the best that the Free Beacon and Covington & Burling have gone their separate ways, at least on defamation and employment issues.
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.