Judges’ Boycott of Columbia in Clerk Hiring Is Permissible Under Judicial Ethics Rules (II)
From an order by Eleventh Circuit Judge William Pryor, affirmed by the Eleventh Circuit Judicial Council Aug. 12 but apparently just recently made public (see also this similar Fifth Circuit decision):
The Complaint stems from a letter from multiple federal judges, including the Subject Judges, addressed to the president of a university and copied to the dean of the university’s law school. The letter … states:
Since the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas, [] University has become ground zero for the explosion of student disruptions, anti-semitism, and hatred for diverse viewpoints on campuses across the Nation. Disruptors have threatened violence, committed assaults, and destroyed property. As judges who hire law clerks every year to serve in the federal judiciary, we have lost confidence in [the university] as an institution of higher education. [The university] has instead become an incubator of bigotry. As a result, [the university] has disqualified itself from educating the future leaders of our country.
The letter sets out the following three steps the university would take if it was “serious about reclaiming its once-distinguished reputation”: (1) “Serious consequences for students and faculty who have participated in campus disruptions and violated established rules concerning the use of university facilities and public spaces and threats against fellow members of the university community”; (2) “Neutrality and nondiscrimination in the protection of freedom of speech and the enforcement of rules of campus conduct”; and (3) “Viewpoint diversity on the faculty and across the administration—including the admissions office.”
In discussing item 1, the letter states that universities should identify students who violate established rules or threaten others, and that, “If not, employers are forced to assume the risk that anyone they hire from [the university] may be one of these disruptive and hateful students.”
In discussing item 2, the letter states, “It has become clear that [the university] applies double standards when it comes to free speech and student misconduct. If [the university] had been faced with a campus uprising of religious conservatives upset because they view abortion as a tragic genocide, we have no doubt that the university’s response would have been profoundly different. By favoring certain viewpoints over others based on their popularity and acceptance in certain circles, [the university] has failed as a legitimate, never mind elite, institution of higher education.”
As to item 3, the letter states, “Recent events demonstrate that ideological homogeneity throughout the entire institution [] has destroyed its ability to train future leaders of a pluralistic and intellectually diverse country. Both professors and administrators are on the front lines of the campus disruptions, encouraging the virulent spread of antisemitism and bigotry.”
The letter then states, “Considering recent events, and absent extraordinary change, we will not hire anyone who joins the [] University commu
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