Stanford Law apologizes to judge heckled by students
Stanford Law School has apologized to a Trump-appointed federal appeals court judge after he appeared at an event there and was met with vocal resistance when he tried to deliver remarks in front of students.
Stuart Kyle Duncan, a judge with the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, had been invited by the Stanford chapter of the Federalist Society for an event Thursday titled “The Fifth Circuit in Conversation With the Supreme Court: COVID, Guns, and Twitter.”
Before his appointment to the bench, Duncan was the general counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which argued on behalf of Hobby Lobby challenging the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate.
He has argued against same-sex marriage and as a judge refused to use a transgender litigant’s chosen pronouns.
Duncan did not get far with his remarks before he was confronted by students from the campus LGBTQ group OutLaw, holding signs and protesting as he tried to speak, Reuters reported.
Reuters reported that Duncan called the students “idiots” during the exchange, a comment he reiterated during an interview with the outlet.
In the letter sent to Duncan on Saturday, Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Stanford Law School Dean Jenny Martinez said: “We write to apologize for the disruption of your recent speech at Stanford Law School. As has already been communicated to our community, what happened was inconsistent with our policies on free speech, and we are very sorry about the experience you had while visiting our campus.”
The letter said students were welcome to protest campus speakers they did not agree with, but not disrupt proceedings “whether by heckling or other forms of interruption.”
It also said that “staff members who should have enforced university policies failed to do so, and instead intervened in inappropriate ways that are not aligned with the university’s commitment to free speech.”
That could be a reference to a video of what appears to be a part of the incident posted online by the conservative publication National Review that shows the law school’s associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion, Tirien Steinbach, addressing Duncan about the harm some of his legal opinions have caused.
In the video Duncan can be heard calling Steinbach’s taking the podium “a setup.” Steinbach told Duncan in front of the assembled group that his legal opinions, “for many people at the law school who work here … land as absolute disenfranchisement of their rights.”
“I think this entire thing is a joke,” Duncan said during a tense Q&A portion that escalated into a shouting match.
When a student asked Duncan whether he stood by his past comments criticizing the U.S. Supreme Court decision to uphold same-sex marriage and calling it a threat to civil peace, the Fifth Circuit judge doubled down.
“I think that civil peace has been imperiled by the decision as evidenced right here,” he said, gesturing toward the audience.
“Thanks so the Federalist Society for inviting me,” he said during what appeared to be the conclusion of the event. “As far as the rest of you people,” he waved, “yeah, whatever.”
The law school did not immediately respond to an emailed request seeking comment from Steinbach. Representatives for Duncan were not immediately available to return a call to his chamber in Louisiana on Saturday.
The apology letter finished by stating: “We are taking 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.”