Conformity, Inequity, and Exclusion

Stanford Law School has responded, if imperfectly, to the debacle of March 9. After Judge Kyle Duncan of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals was heckled, derided with obscenities, and blocked from giving his full prepared remarks, the super-elite school responded with a bit of force that, while encouraging on the surface, did not disturb the roots of the problem of systemic bias.

Tirien Steinbach, the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) dean who delivered the viral six-minute lecture hectoring Judge Duncan for his temerity to try to speak while conservative, is now on some kind of administrative leave. University president Marc Tessier-Lavigne and law-school dean Jenny Martinez apologized to Duncan several times. Most encouragingly, Martinez issued a memorandum explaining how the law school would try to inculcate the value of free speech among its students through mandatory training sessions, and presumably to explain how the heckler’s veto runs afoul of that value.

About the Author

Tal Fortgang

Tal Fortgang is a legal policy fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

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Stanford Law School has responded, if imperfectly, to the debacle of March 9. After Judge Kyle Duncan of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals was heckled, derided with obscenities, and blocked from giving his full prepared remarks, the super-elite school responded with a bit of force that, while encouraging on the surface, did not disturb the roots of the problem of systemic bias.

Tirien Steinbach, the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) dean who delivered the viral six-minute lecture hectoring Judge Duncan for his temerity to try to speak while conservative, is now on some kind of administrative leave. University president Marc Tessier-Lavigne and law-school dean Jenny Martinez apologized to Duncan several times. Most encouragingly, Martinez issued a memorandum explaining how the law school would try to inculcate the value of free speech among its students through mandatory training sessions, and presumably to explain how the heckler’s veto runs afoul of that value.