Last week over a dozen conservative federal judges declared they won’t hire law clerks from Columbia Law School’s graduating classes because of the protests on that campus (see story here; read their letter here).
They may think they’re striking a blow for the rule of law, but all this proves is those judges are stupid, mean, and nasty. That’s probably a good reason not to work for them (I’ll have more to say about this below).
According to Axios, all these judges are Trump appointees (surprised?), see story here. If you’re curious, Aileen Cannon, who’s presiding over Trump’s classified documents trial (and doing a lousy job, see story here), isn’t one of them. Their names are at the bottom of the letter linked above.)
But let’s say someone wants to. Judicial clerkships are a plum opportunity for new lawyers. After a year or two of helping judges research and write opinions on complex legal issues, it opens doors at major law firms, and can lead to teaching and judicial positions. Many judges were law clerks at the beginning of their careers. Generally, only top law school graduates get these jobs.
What these judges are saying to Columbia’s law students is, we don’t care whether you participated in the protests or not, we’re going to punish you for what your fellow students did. Or, put another way, they don’t like the students choosing a school they had no issue with when the students chose it, which was long before protests nobody could have foreseen happened. It reeks of unfairness and arbitrariness.
The judges said,
“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.”
But they’re not willing to even consider whether a clerkship applicant engaged in any of these acts. That’s unfair and arbitrary, too. It’s also stupid because the students applying for clerkships with conservative judges probably are conservatives themselves, and not the type who join or sympathize with anti-Israel protests. It’s like shooting your own dog because somebody else’s dog bit someone.
They’ll have other clerkship opportunities. There are 677 district and 179 appellate judgeships in the federal judiciary, although the actual number is slightly less due to unfilled vacancies. Thirteen judges of ~856 isn’t an avalanche.
I think law students everywhere, not just at Columbia, should turn the tables on them. Whether they’re liberal or conservative, they should defend their fellow law students by boycotting judges who boycott innocent law students. No one should apply for their clerkships or work for them. Let them do the work themselves.
There’s a special irony in all this. Israel has been accused of imposing collective punishment on Gaza Palestinians for the Oct. 7 terror attacks. The protests are aimed in part at that. Now these judges are collectively punishing Columbia’s law students. The irony is the judges are doing what Israel is did to spark the very protests the judges object to.
Maybe that deserves its own protest. Or a boycott.
Photo: Judge Mathew Kacsmaryk, a highly controversial Trump appointee who sits in Texas, is one of the 13 signers of the letter.