Last week, the Washington Free Beacon’s Aaron Sibarium documented Yale Law School’s outrageous, over-the-top, and absolutely unwarranted response to a part-Cherokee law student Trent Colbert’s innocuous email invitation to a mixer cohosted by the Native American Law Students Association and the Federalist Society.
Administrators at Yale Law School spent weeks pressuring a student to apologize for a "triggering" email he sent out. Part of what made the email "triggering," the administrators told the student, was his membership in a conservative organization. 🧵https://t.co/iJigk63LFe
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) October 13, 2021
Sibarium’s entire thread is worth a read if you haven’t already checked it out.
Anyway, the saga is far from over. And Sibarium is still on the case, and it doesn’t appear that he’s going to let this one go anytime soon.
Yesterday, Sibarium posted an email from Yale Law Dean Heather Gerken to the law school:
Heather Gerken, the Dean of Yale Law School, has emailed the entire law school about my story last week. She suggests our reporting was based "on partial facts" and announces that she has asked Deputy Dean Ian Ayers to "assess the situation." https://t.co/iJigk63LFe pic.twitter.com/iVrdnC8Kkk
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) October 18, 2021
Gerken impugning Sibarium’s integrity is nothing if not a sign of desperation and guilt. Sibarium’s writing was thorough and well-researched. One would think that sort of thing would be applauded by one of the nation’s most prestigious law schools. Apparently that’s not the case.
The dean's "partial facts" claim would be more tenable if (a) there wasn't audio of the YLS student's exchanges w/the diversity bureaucrats; and (b) there wasn't subsequent reporting by @TheFIREorg & @DavidLat raising additional concerns w/how YLS acted.https://t.co/aoaM8ALB5D
— KC Johnson (@kcjohnson9) October 18, 2021
Whether the media environment was "charged" or not doesn't alter what the YLS administrators said on the tape.
And where was this sudden concern with "partial facts" when the YLS administrators sent an email denouncing Colbert's wording?— KC Johnson (@kcjohnson9) October 18, 2021
It’s almost as if Yale Law School’s priorities are totally out of whack.
Astute observers may remember Ayers as the Yale Law Professor who said in a WaPo oped that “they” would refer to all students by gender neutral pronouns “until I’m told otherwise,” lest Ayers inadvertently “misgender someone.”https://t.co/flgQ9IbGU6
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) October 18, 2021
And that’s who Heather Gerken wants taking the reins on this.
So expect Colbert to face an even steeper uphill battle before all is said and done.
More from Sibarium:
NEW: Yale Law administrators are doing damage control as faculty members slam the school's dishonesty—and as students continue to go after Colbert.
One YLS professor told the school: "Please correct the record—I would not want to have to do it for you." https://t.co/Qcy32RH1G1
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) October 18, 2021
Today, YLS dean Heather Gerken promised an investigation into the controversy. YLS told the Free Beacon that this investigation would not result in any further action against Colbert. "As our statement last week made clear, this is protected speech," a YLS spokesperson said.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) October 18, 2021
The law school's statement, released Oct. 13 in the wake of my Free Beacon story, denied that Colbert faced "any disciplinary investigation" or action over his email. That denial sparked fierce blowback from two YLS professors who lambasted the dishonesty of their own university.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) October 18, 2021
One of those professors, corporate legal scholar Roberta Romano, threatened to "correct the record" if the law school didn't do so itself. The administration's actions toward Colbert, Romano wrote a university spokesperson, are "in direct and total conflict with what you stated."
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) October 18, 2021
Romano also noted that the school's diversity director had made "a sly threat" about the student's career.
"Please correct the record," she added. "I would not want to have to do it for you."
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) October 18, 2021
Another Yale Law professor, who asked to remain anonymous, said the initial statement was "appallingly disingenuous and full of falsehoods." The most egregious falsehood, the professor said, was YLS's claim that "no student is investigated or sanctioned for protected speech."
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) October 18, 2021
Here is that professor's full statement: pic.twitter.com/JGkUMBDMHa
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) October 18, 2021
Also, for what it’s worth, here’s physician and Yale Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science Nicholas A. Christakis:
I am not anonymous and I have made the same statements. The press release by Yale Law School is utterly inconsistent with the facts of this case. https://t.co/yqc2vdpx50
— Nicholas A. Christakis (@NAChristakis) October 18, 2021
So that’s at least three Yale professors calling out Yale Law’s official narrative.
Sibarium continued:
The outrage has bubbled over into other elite universities. Keith Whittington, a legal theorist at Princeton, said Yale Law's actions were "highly inappropriate and completely incompatible with maintaining a free speech culture in a law school."
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) October 18, 2021
"There is no question that such actions send a chilling message across the student body and convey clearly that the law school is a hostile environment for conservative students," Whittington told the Free Beacon.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) October 18, 2021
And what does Yale Law School plan to do about students unfairly going after Colbert?
Meanwhile, the complaints against Colbert have only intensified since we published our story. Between Oct. 17 and Oct. 18, several students sent law school-wide emails denouncing Colbert and the Federalist Society, which one student group characterized as "violent."
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) October 18, 2021
"The pooled legal knowledge of our membership cannot name every [Fedsoc] decision that has harmed our communities," Yale's Dred Scott Society wrote in a 2,555-word email on Oct. 18—"a testament to the extensiveness of this violence."
Read it here: https://t.co/6BU1cvUMxv pic.twitter.com/qHzoINPQ0N
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) October 18, 2021
This is social justice and wokeness run amok.
Colbert's actions, the society continued, "are yet another example of the way Fedsoc members attempt to weaponize discourse against the very people trying to have conversations in community with him"—conversations that were only initiated after the student complaints were filed.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) October 18, 2021
"Trent's narrative of being a victim of cancel culture based on his membership in Fedsoc attempts to both diminish the harm that he caused and erase the role that his own actions played in causing the harm in the first place," the Dred Scott society statement goes on.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) October 18, 2021
The president of Black Law Students association, Marina Edwards, likewise rejected the idea that Colbert had been "cancelled."
"Black students did not attempt to cancel Trent," she wrote in an Oct. 17 email to the law school, which you can read here: https://t.co/Oq7V3eQuGZ
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) October 18, 2021
"Calling out someone who behaves irresponsibly toward historically marginalized communities…is not an act of oppression; it is an act of love and compassion for those whose lives are daily ripped apart and trampled upon by systems (and people) of oppression."
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) October 18, 2021
These are some appalling attempted intellectual acrobatic feats.
If students are not attempting to cancel Colbert, they are attempting to remove him from his position as a student representative. The law school's student government said in an Oct. 16 email that it drafted an entirely new set of procedures for removing student representatives.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) October 18, 2021
Those procedures were drafted in direct response to "concerns surrounding Trent Colbert's conduct."
It remains unclear whether the student government will actually use those procedures against Colbert.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) October 18, 2021
Another student group, the First Generation Professionals at Yale Law School, sent an email on Oct. 18 to "affirm" Edwards's message and "condemn the racist email sent by Trent Colbert."
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) October 18, 2021
The group said it "recognized[d]" the "harmful impacts" of "hostile media coverage" on black students and thanked Eldik for attempting to "educate Trent and repair harm within the [Yale Law School] community." Read it all here: https://t.co/Sp4NHHXDga
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) October 18, 2021
The emails from Edwards and the Dred Scott Society also invoked the concept of "dialogue" pioneered by Paulo Freire, a Brazilian Marxist who praised Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution as "the most genial solution" to "oppressive" pedagogy.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) October 18, 2021
"Critical dialogue is about holding space for positive growth and change," Edwards wrote, citing "Freirian praxis."
But, the Dred Scott Society clarified, "to engage in dialogue, we must all hold all of the cards."
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) October 18, 2021
In other words, it’s not a dialogue they want; it’s a monologue.
***
Update:
Left-leaning law blogger and Yale Law School alumnus David Lat delves into his serious concerns with YLS’ conduct over conservative student https://t.co/sFzUhaWqfb
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) October 19, 2021
