Students at Lewis & Clark Law School shouted, sang, and held signs onstage as Christina Hoff Sommers attempted to give a lecture and answer questions.
The students held signs saying “No platform for fascists,” “Your rhetoric is not welcome here,” and “Rape culture is not a myth.”
At one point, students demanded that Sommers start answering questions without finishing her lecture.
Protesters try to disrupt @CHSommers lecture. They demand that she take questions now. pic.twitter.com/CadwW1Nkcg
— Andy C. Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) March 5, 2018
Several student groups called for the cancellation of the speech by the American Enterprise Institute Scholar ahead of time, calling Sommers a “known fascist” and “rape apologist/denialist.”
The school’s National Lawyers Guild chapter accused the Federalist Society of “inviting a known fascist to our campus to encourage what we believe to be an act of aggression and violence toward members of our society who experience racial and gendered oppression.” The statement gave a list of minority groups threatened or delegitimized by Sommers’s rhetoric.
The Women’s Law Caucus, Jewish Law Society, Minority Law Student Association, Young Democratic Socialists of America chapter, Black Law Student Society, and the Latino Law Society all signed a letter protesting the speaker.
A particularly emotional moment occurred when a female student accused Sommers of approving of sexual assault.
“That’s what you just said!” she told the speaker.
Protesters could be heard chanting outside the room as well.
Sommers called the protesters “a few confused campus groups” in a thank you to the Federalist Society.
“We wish to strongly oppose the labeling of our guest Christina Hoff Sommers as a ‘known fascist,'” the Federalist Society said in a statement. “She has stood in support of free expression, individuality, and against the oppressive cloak that extreme collectivists are known all too well to wear. Moreover, we hope that such a misapplied label is only a rash mistake, and not a deliberate attempt to justify shutting down the pursuit of free and rational discourse by any means possible.”
