A group of 13 federal judges has declared that they won’t hire any new graduates of Columbia University, citing what they described as an “explosion of student disruptions, anti-Semitism, and hatred for diverse viewpoints” on the Ivy League school campus.
“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,” the judges wrote in a letter to Columbia President Minouche Shafik.
The May 6 letter comes as turmoil continues at Columbia after police officers in riot gear descended on the New York City campus to break up the pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the green and retake an academic building back from student occupiers. The New York Police Department stated that 80 of the 112 protesters arrested at Columbia during the April 30 sweep were students.
“Disruptors have threatened violence, committed assaults, and destroyed property,” the judges wrote, asserting that if the university were truly serious about its reputation, it would impose “serious consequences” on students and faculty members who have participated in campus disruptions and broke the rules.
“Universities should also identify students who engage in such conduct so that future employers can avoid hiring them,” they argued. “If not, employers are forced to assume the risk that anyone they hire from Columbia may be one of these disruptive and hateful students.”
The judges, all appointees of former President Donald Trump, also pointed out a perceived double standard in Columbia’s approach to handling student protests, suggesting that the university’s response varies depending on the protesters’ political views.
“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 university’s response would have been profoundly different,” their letter reads.
The disruptions had already prompted Columbia to shift all classes to online. On May 6, the university said it would cancel the large-scale commencement, originally scheduled for May 15, and instead hold smaller celebrations based in individual colleges within the university.
The judges, however, said they have yet to see any sign of significant change that would restore their confidence in the elite school.
“Considering recent events, and absent extraordinary change, we will not hire anyone who joins the Columbia University community—whether as undergraduates or law students—beginning with the entering class of 2024,” they declared.
The university didn’t respond to a request for comments.
About two-thirds of the letter’s signatories are based in Texas, including Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas, who has emerged as the prominent choice for conservatives looking to challenge the Biden administration’s national policies in realms such as immigration and abortion.
Last March, Judge Kacsmaryk suspended the federal approval of the widely-used abortion pill mifepristone, igniting a high-stakes legal battle that has since escalated to the attention of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Another two lead signatories—U.S. Circuit Judges James Ho of the 5th Circuit and Elizabeth Branch of the 11th Circuit—had previously pledged to turn down clerk applicants who graduated from Yale and Stanford Universities. In recent years, the two elite universities have been plagued by high-profile “cancel culture” incidents, where progressive activists shouted down invited speakers and peers to prevent others from hearing their conservative views.
“I don’t want to cancel Yale,” the judge said. “I want Yale to stop canceling people like me.”
