Ilya Shapiro, On Heels Of Georgetown Law Hiring, Faces Uproar Over Tweeting That Biden's SCOTUS Pick Will Be A 'Lesser Black Woman'

Christine Charnosky (Law.com), Ilya Shapiro, on Heels of Georgetown Law Hiring, Tweets That Biden's SCOTUS Pick Will Be a 'Lesser Black Woman':

Less than a week after being announced as the new executive director of Georgetown Law’s Center for the Constitution, Ilya Shapiro tweeted yesterday that Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan of the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is “objectively” the best pick for the U.S. Supreme Court and that any nominee President Joe Biden selects will be a “lesser black woman.”

Early this morning, before Shapiro’s tweet was deleted, Georgetown Law Professor Anderson Francois tweeted at him. ... That apparently prompted Shapiro to issue an apology this morning, noting that he had deleted the original tweet, which he called “inartful.”

Georgetown Law Dean William M. Treanor released the following statement to Law.com today:

“Ilya Shapiro, who was recently hired to direct one of Georgetown Law’s research institutes, posted a series of tweets on Twitter that he has since deleted. The tweets’ suggestion that the best Supreme Court nominee could not be a Black woman and their use of demeaning language are appalling. The tweets are at odds with everything we stand for at Georgetown Law and are damaging to the culture of equity and inclusion that Georgetown Law is building every day.”

Dan McLaughlin (National Review), The Dishonest Cancellation Campaign against Ilya Shapiro:

[O]ne may or may not agree that Sri Srinivasan would be the best possible candidate, but it is not an unreasonable point of view, and I do not doubt that it is a sincere one. Srinivasan certainly has a sparkling resume of the sort that Supreme Court nominees are regularly made of: he argued 25 Supreme Court cases as principal deputy solicitor general, lectured at Harvard Law School on Supreme Court and appellate advocacy, and has served on the D.C. Circuit for nine years. He is now the chief judge of that court, succeeding Merrick Garland. In 2016, we heard lots from liberals about how that job made Garland an ideal candidate. Nine years ago, Srinivasan was described by Jeffrey Toobin as Barack Obama’s “Supreme Court nominee in waiting,” and as Adam Serwer wrote at the time, “Srinivasan has more bipartisan legal muscle behind him than any other federal court nominee in recent memory. Legal elites of all political stripes consider him one of the best lawyers in the country.” Given that Srinivasan is also a member of an ethnic group and a religion (Hinduism) that have never been represented on the Court, it would seem imprudent for a Democratic president to rule him entirely out of consideration for no reason other than his race and gender. One would think that, in America, that sort of thing would be a fair criticism.  ...

• Above the Law, Georgetown Law’s Newest Hire Thinks Biden Will Nominate ‘Lesser Black Women’ To The Supreme Court
• Daily Beast, New Georgetown Law Exec Deletes ‘Appalling’ Tweets About Biden SCOTUS Picks
• New York Post, Georgetown Law Dean Blasts Tweets By Incoming Prof About Race, Gender Test For Biden SCOTUS Pick
• Glenn Reynolds (Tennessee), Slate's Mark Joseph Stern Launches a Smear Attack on Ilya Shapiro
• Reuters, Georgetown Law Dean Calls New Hire's Comments on Breyer Replacement 'Appalling'
• Washington Post, Incoming Georgetown Law Administrator Apologizes After Tweets Dean Called ‘Appalling’

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