Judge James C. Ho of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said in his keynote address to the Kentucky Chapters Conference of the Federalist Society that he will no longer hire clerks from Yale University’s prestigious law school.
Ho generated controversy before when he gave a full-throated defense of Ilya Shaprio at Georgetown Law School. Shapiro had been hired to fill a prominent position at Georgetown Law — a position the left believed was theirs. So when the brilliant constitutional attorney tweeted out his opposition to appointing a black female to the Supreme Court simply because Biden had made a campaign promise, the cancel culture pounced.
“Objectively best pick for Biden is Sri Srinivasan, who is solid [progressive] and [very] smart,” Shapiro tweeted. “Even has identity politics benefit of being first Asian (Indian) American. But alas doesn’t fit into last intersectionality hierarchy so we’ll get lesser black woman. Thank heaven for small favors?”
Shapiro was run out of Georgetown when the spineless dean actually agreed with the activists, and rather than fight the radical left, Shapiro resigned.
So Ho is no stranger to controversies. And on this case, he has thrown down the gauntlet to the university cancel culture that has terrorized conservatives.
Ho’s half-hour address to the Kentucky Federalist Society conference sounded similar notes, arguing that “all too often, law schools appear to be run by the mob — whether out of sympathy or spinelessness.” (“Colleges aren’t teaching students how to agree to disagree,” he said. “They’re teaching students how to destroy. And then they’re launching them into the world.”) He cited numerous examples, including Shapiro’s suspension at Georgetown, the shouting-down of law professor and author Josh Blackman at City University of New York School of Law in 2018, and the “similar dynamics during law school talks” faced by “Judges David Stras and Patrick Bumatay of the Eighth and Ninth Circuits.”
This is not a new phenomenon. Left-wing students have been shouting down people who express views they disagree with for 50 years. But what’s new about this is the lack of defense for free speech from the grown-ups — school administrators and deans who should be teaching values like tolerance and freedom of speech but who don’t have the guts to do what they know is right.
Refusing to hire law clerks from Yale would strike at the heart of the illiberal culture in the nation’s premier legal institutions, Ho argued: “Yale presents itself as the best, most elite institution of legal education. Yet it’s the worst when it comes to legal cancellation.” The school “sets the tone for other law schools, and for the legal profession at large. I certainly reserve the right to add other schools in the future. But my sincere hope is that I won’t have to. My sincere hope is that, if nothing else, my colleagues and I will at least send the message that other schools should not follow in Yale’s footsteps.”
Ho’s message to law schools was clear: “If they want the closed and intolerant environment that Yale embraces today, that’s their call. But I want nothing to do with it.”
The only reason these radicals enjoy the power they have is that no one in authority stands up to them. They can’t. If they did, they would be the next target on the list. It takes courage, like that demonstrated by Judge Ho — courage that’s lacking on campus — to end this reign of terror once and for all.
