13 Federal Judges Will Not Hire Law Clerks From Columbia: An ‘Incubator Of Bigotry’

Aaron Sibarium (Washington Free Beacon), 13 Federal Judges Say They Will No Longer Hire Law Clerks From Columbia University, Citing ‘Virulent Spread of Antisemitism’ and ‘Explosion of Student Disruptions’:

Thirteen federal judges said Monday that they would no longer hire law clerks from Columbia College or Columbia Law School after the university allowed an encampment on its lawn to spiral into a destructive occupation of a campus building. The judges cited the "explosion of student disruptions" and the "virulent spread of antisemitism" at Columbia, which has now canceled its main graduation ceremony because of the unrest.

Led by appellate judges James Ho and Elizabeth Branch, who spearheaded a clerkship boycott of Yale Law School in 2022 and Stanford Law School in 2023, as well as by Matthew Solomson on the U.S Court of Federal Claims, the judges wrote in a letter to Columbia president Minouche Shafik that they would no longer hire "anyone who joins the Columbia University community—whether as undergraduates or as law students—beginning with the entering class of 2024."

"Freedom of speech protects protest, not trespass, and certainly not acts or threats of violence or terrorism," the judges wrote. "It has become clear that Columbia applies double standards when it comes to free speech and student misconduct."

• ABA Journal, University is 'Incubator of Bigotry,' Say 13 Federal Judges Boycotting Its Grads
• Josh Blackman (South Texas), Federal Judges To Boycott Law Clerks From Columbia University Due To "Virulent Spread of Antisemitism"
• Bloomberg Law, Conservative Judges Won’t Hire Columbia Law Clerks Over Protests
• Paul Horwitz (Alabama), Is Boycotting a University the Best Means of Criticizing It? Is It Even a Good One?
• Orin Kerr (UC-Berkeley), Boycotting Law Schools in Clerk Hiring As a Way to Influence Law School Culture
• Orin Kerr (UC-Berkeley), Do Judges "Have an Important Role to Play in Our Society" Beyond Judging?
• David Lat, Campus Protests Lead To A New Clerkship Boycott
• Eugene Volokh (UCLA), Columbia, the Boycotting Judges, Neutrals, and Secondary Boycotts
• Wall Street Journal, Conservative Judges Plan to Blackball Columbia University Graduates

• National Law Journal, Judges Say They Won’t Hire Clerks From Columbia Over Pro-Palestine Campus Protests
• National Review, Thirteen Federal Judges Pledge Not to Hire from Columbia, Call It an ‘Incubator of Bigotry’
• New York Post, 13 Federal Judges Boycott Columbia Grads Over Anti-Israeli Protests: ‘An Incubator of Bigotry’
• Reuters, Conservative US Judges Boycott Columbia Grads Over Campus Gaza Protests

Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:

• New York Times, 54 Columbia Law Faculty Condemn Administration For Disciplinary Action Against Anti-Israel Student Protesters (Apr. 23, 2024)
• Washington Post, Punish Columbia Professors, Not Students Protesters, For The Intellectual Degeneration On Campus (Apr. 28, 2024)
• Law.com, Columbia Law School Delays Exams Amid Protests and Police Activity (May 1, 2024)
• Bloomberg Law, Columbia Law School Offers Optional Pass/Fail Grading Amid Campus Protests (May 2, 2024)
• Washington Free Beacon, “Irrevocably Shaken”: Columbia Law Review Editors Demand Cancellation Of Exams Due To Campus Protests (May 4, 2024)