BANZHAF GOES TO WAR ON STANFORD DISRUPTION: Activist lawprof John Banzhaf at George Washington University is unhappy with Stanford Law Dean Jenny Martinez’s decision not to discipline the student protesters who disrupted Judge Duncan’s speech, and to keep bar examiners from discovering those students’ identities, and is taking action himself: Law Prof To File Bar Complaint Against Stanford Students Who Heckled, Harassed Federal Judge.
An elite university law professor intends to file a complaint with the bar admission authorities to advise against accepting any student who participated in a protest against Federal Judge Kyle Duncan earlier this month, according to an email obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
John Banzhaf, professor of public interest law emeritus at George Washington University (GWU), wrote to Stanford Law School Dean Jenny Martinez on Monday to inform her of the complaint, the exchange read. The protesters heckled Duncan, who was invited to campus by the Federalist Society, during his March 9 speech and were encouraged by Stanford Law School Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Tirien Steinbach.
The complaint will include video of the protest “so that bar officials can judge the students’ conduct for themselves,” according to the email.
“I have advised Stanford Law School that I am planning to file complaints with the appropriate bar admission authorities regarding the violations of its own free speech rules by some of its law students because, like many others, I feel that their actions in deliberately preventing a federal judge from speaking to law students who wanted to hear his views and perhaps question him about them reflects adversely on their character and fitness, and, perhaps most importantly, because the Law School – which actually encouraged the wrongful behavior – is apparently refusing to take any actions regarding the disruptive students,” Banzhaf told the DCNF.
Banzhalf cited several opinion articles that offered recommendations on how the law school could respond to the students who violated the code of conduct including sending a message to character & fitness review boards or imposing suspensions and expulsions. Complaints to bar officials can be filed anonymously and can delay or deny student admission, he said in a ValueWalk article titled “A Remedy For Stanford Law School’s Free Speech Thugs.”
“I have long believed that one important role law professors can play is to file legal complaints where appropriate since doing so effectively often requires being a lawyer; yet many lawyers in private practice are reluctant to take controversial actions for fear of losing existing clients or alienating prospective ones – a risk law professors do not face,” he told the DCNF.
Stay tuned.
UPDATE: More Commentary On The Disruption Of A Federal Judge’s Speech At Stanford Law School (Part 3).