Campus News

Stanford Law School Yet To Discipline Dean Who Helped Derail Conservative Judge’s Speaking Event

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Stanford Law School has yet to discipline a dean who berated an invited speaker during a lunchtime speech on guns, COVID-19 and Twitter while protesters attempted to shout down the event.

The Federalist Society, a conservative and libertarian law group, hosted Fifth Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan on March 9, but he was interrupted by Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Tirien Steinbach who alleged his speech “denie[d] the humanity of people.” Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Stanford Law School (SLS) Dean Jenny Martinez apologized to Duncan on Saturday and conceded that the staff member’s who were at the speech “intervened in inappropriate ways that are not aligned with the university’s commitment to free speech,” but did not announce any disciplinary actions.

Steinbach said during Duncan’s speech that his work “has caused harm” and questioned if his remarks were worth the “pain” and “division” it caused at the school. The law school wrote in its apology to Duncan that it would take “steps to ensure that something like this does not happen again.”

“Freedom of speech is a bedrock principle for the law school, the university, and a democratic society, and we can and must do better to ensure that it continues even in polarized times,” the letter reads.

Jeanne Merino, Stanford Law School acting associate dean of students, later emailed Federalist Society student leaders on Saturday night to advise them to reach out to Steinbach for “support” or to “process last week’s events,” according to the email obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

“There is much to process about Thursday’s event and its aftermath, but the focus of this email is to provide you with resources that you can use right now to support your safety and mental health,” the email read. “I’ve seen and heard from several of you who are concerned for your safety and are having a hard time processing last week’s events. I am so sorry that you are having to deal with this difficulty at all, much less now. Please pass this information on to your broader membership.”

Judge Duncan event at Stanford from Ethics and Public Policy Center on Vimeo.

Merino also referred Federalist Society students to a clinical psychologist “available to counsel students who are not feeling safe,” according to the email. She advised the chapter to avoid posting on social media “until this news cycle winds down, as the law school and university have done” and to remove their name from the Stanford Law School website.

“Try your best not to engage on Twitter or any other social media platform, as issues tend to escalate and trolls are looking for a fight,” she wrote.

Merino and the chapter did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. Steinbach and the chapter could not be contacted.