What Punishments Must Stanford Impose?

By Ed Whelan

Monday, March 13, 2023

 

In their joint apology to Judge Kyle Duncan, Stanford president Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Stanford law dean Jenny Martinez acknowledged the obvious fact that the protestors’ disruption of Duncan’s presentation “was inconsistent with our policies on free speech.” They further acknowledged that “staff members who should have enforced university policies failed to do so, and instead intervened in inappropriate ways that are not aligned with the university’s commitment to free speech.”

 

The question now is what punishments Stanford should impose. I think that it’s clear that DEI dean Tirien Steinbach should be fired. As for the student protestors, Stanford’s written policy on campus disruptions—a policy that Steinbach herself linked to in her email to students before the event—provides valuable guidance. That policy expressly states that while Stanford “firmly supports the rights of all members of the University community to express their views or to protest against actions and opinions with which they disagree”:

 

It is a violation of University policy for a member of the faculty, staff, or student body to:

 

Prevent or disrupt the effective carrying out of a University function or approved activity, such as lectures, meetings, interviews, ceremonies, the conduct of University business in a University office, and public events.

 

That policy also expressly states that while there is no “ordinary” penalty for violations, past infractions “have led to penalties ranging from censure to expulsion.” (Emphasis added.) It thus gives clear notice that censure should be expected as the minimum penalty.

 

Princeton professor Robert P. George offered this helpful guidance:

 

Hold everything constant–the interruptions, vile language, and the rest–except the speaker is Sonia Sotomayor, the sponsor is the Stanford Women’s Collective, and the students disrupting the event and hurling hateful epithets at the speaker are anti-abortion. What would happen?

 

Whatever the true answer to that question is, is also the answer to the questions of what should have been done by administrators at Judge Duncan’s talk, and what sanctions should be imposed now on those who disrupted it.

 

Boston University professor David Decosimo responded:

 

Let’s be real. If a group of conservative Stanford law students shouted down a federal judge w/ obscenities & mocked their sex life while a Dean watched & praised them, there’d be front page stories on fascism, the Dean would be fired, & they’d be expelled & banished from big law.