The Cornell Seven and the Revolution

When the rule of law gives way to ideological passions and partisan score-settling, then we no longer have trials worthy of the name.

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Left: The closed chapter house of Cornell Universityโ€™s Chi Phi fraternity, in Ithaca, N.Y., October 8, 2026. Right: New York attorney general Letitia James in New York City, October 24, 2023.

Angelina Katsanis/Reuters; Mike Segar/Pool via Reuters

When the horrific Cornell Seven story broke, I happened to be watching a series about the โ€œTerrorโ€ phase of the French Revolution on The Rest Is History, the scintillating podcast of historians Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook. The climactic events that lead to Maximilien Robespierreโ€™s fall are ignited by a provision he himself forced through a skeptical National Convention: Law of 22 Prairial Year II (i.e., June 10, 1794, the haughty radicals having endeavored to reset time itself such that the calendar would trace it from the proclamation of the First Republic rather than the birth of Christ).

The purport of the new law was to save a revolution based on the โ€œnatural, imprescriptible, and inalienableโ€ rights of man by . . . of course . . . repealing the rights most essential to man, the substantive and procedural trial protections of the accused.

Andrew C. McCarthy

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.

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