Stanford president and law school dean apologize after students heckle conservative federal judge

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Protesters at Stanford University constantly interrupted a conservative federal judge who had come to speak to the Stanford chapter of the Federalist Society, an American conservative and libertarian legal organization. A staff member at the event allegedly encouraged the heckling, instead of urging the students to stop.

Key Players

U.S. Circuit Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan was nominated to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans, by former President Donald Trump in 2017. According to The Washington Blade, a pro-LGBTQ+ outlet, in 2015, when the question of same-sex marriage came before the Supreme Court, Duncan filed a brief on behalf of 15 states in opposition to nationwide marriage equality. 

Marc Tessier-Lavigne is president of Stanford University, and Jenny Martinez is dean of its law school. 

Tirien Steinbach is associate dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) at Stanford Law School.

Further Details

Duncan came to speak to the Stanford Law chapter of the Federalist Society on March 9, 2023, at an event called “The Fifth Circuit in Conversation with the Supreme Court: Covid, Guns, and Twitter.” He had faced pushback from LGBTQ+ rights organizations after his nomination in 2017 for allegedly discriminatory views and his past legal work, Bloomberg Law reported. Several law students had attempted to get the event canceled, alleging he had “proudly threatened healthcare and basic rights for marginalized communities,” fought to “deny same-sex couples the right to marry,” and to “deny reproductive healthcare.” In 2020, he was criticized for refusing to use a transgender defendant’s chosen pronouns during an appeal hearing, NBC News reported. 

After the event was announced, a trans-rights student group circulated a petition requesting that the Federalist Society either cancel it or move it onto Zoom, The Stanford Daily reported. The petition, signed by more than 90 Stanford law students, claimed that Duncan had “repeatedly and proudly threatened healthcare and basic rights for marginalized communities.”

Despite the protests from the law students, the event was held as scheduled on March 9. A video showed protesters heckling Duncan while he attempted to give his opening remarks. Eventually, he asked for an administrator to calm down the crowd. Steinbach identified herself as an administrator and proceeded to give a lengthy speech telling Duncan that he was welcome in the space, but that the students felt his “advocacy, opinions from the bench, land as absolute disenfranchisement of their rights” and that Stanford believed that “the way to address speech that feels abhorrent, that feels harmful, that literally denies the humanity of people — that one way to do that is with more speech and not less.”

After Steinbach spoke, a large group left the event in protest, while others remained. 

During the heckling, Duncan repeatedly argued with the student protesters and, according to Bloomberg Law, said at the end of the event, “thanks to the Federalist Society for inviting me, as far as the rest of you people, yeah whatever.”    

Outcome 

Tessier-Lavigne and Martinez apologize to Duncan

Almost immediately, the video went viral. 

On March 11, Tessier-Lavigne and Martinez signed an open letter to Duncan, apologizing for the incident and saying that the law students’ actions were “inconsistent with our policies on free speech.” The letter did not name Steinbach specifically, but it did apologize for “staff members” who “intervened in inappropriate ways that are not aligned with the university’s commitment to free speech.”

Duncan told the National Review that he appreciated the apology, particularly for calling out Steinbach’s behavior, which he called “completely at odds with the law school’s mission of training future members of the bench and bar.” However, he added that he hoped Stanford would take “concrete and comprehensive steps” to prevent something similar from happening again.

Students protest apology 

On March 13, about 50 students in black clothes and masks that said “‘Counter-Speech’ is Free Speech” lined the hallway outside of Martinez’s classroom in protest of her apology, KTXS 12reported. The protest was silent and did not disrupt her constitutional law class.