Conservative federal judges say they won’t hire Columbia graduates

A group of right-leaning federal judges sent a letter to the president and law dean of Columbia University saying they won’t hire graduates of their school after the unrest that has taken over campus the last few weeks of the academic year. 

“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,” said the 13 conservative judges.   

Columbia saw the start of the pro-Palestinian encampments that have spread across the country. The school eventually got police involved to clear the area. 

“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,” the judges wrote.  

“It has become clear that Columbia applies double standards when it comes to free speech and student misconduct. 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,” they added. 

The judges said they would cease hiring from the school starting with the class of 2024.  

“The objective of our boycott is different—it is not to hamper academic freedom, but to restore it at Columbia University,” the judges concluded. 

An official for the school said they have no comment on the letter.