In a recent development, a consortium of conservative federal judges has expressed their disapproval of Columbia University's handling of recent campus unrest.
In a letter addressed to the university's president and law dean, they declared their decision to cease hiring graduates from the institution, starting with the class of 2024.
The judges, numbering thirteen, stated, "As judges who hire law clerks every year to serve in the federal judiciary, we have lost confidence in Columbia as an institution of higher education." This statement comes in the wake of pro-Palestinian encampments that originated at Columbia and subsequently spread nationwide. The university eventually had to involve the police to restore order.
The judges further elaborated in their letter, "Freedom of speech protects protest, not trespass, and certainly not acts or threats of violence or terrorism. Speech is not violence, and violence is not speech. Universities that are serious about academic freedom understand the difference, and they enforce the rules accordingly."
They also accused Columbia of applying double standards when it comes to free speech and student misconduct. "If Columbia had been faced with a campus uprising of religious conservatives upset because they view abortion as a tragic genocide, we have no doubt that the universitys response would have been profoundly different," they added.
The judges clarified that their boycott's objective is not to hamper academic freedom but to restore it at Columbia University. In response to the judges' letter, an official from Columbia University declined to comment.
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