Law Schools

Yale Law Students Join National Walkout Over Kavanaugh In Dramatic Fashion

Yale Law students seem to get what the Yale Law administration does not.

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I didn’t walk out today, as I thought I could be more useful in my small way behind my keyboard. Also because standing on my corner in all black would just result in my getting harassed by the cops in my neighborhood.

But thousands of people did walk out, to protest the Republican effort to “plow through” the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation, despite the mounting allegations against him.

One of the most powerful statements was made by students at Yale Law School.

When the history of the Kavanaugh confirmation process is written, whether he ends up on the Supreme Court or not, Yale will have a lot to answer for. Certain faculty at the school were early and vocal defenders of Brett Kavanaugh’s character. They continued to defend him, even as he refused to answer legitimate questions about Alex Kozsinki, and even as his lies to Congress in previous testimony were exposed.

They way elites in general circled their crystal wagons to defend the character of a fellow elite should give them all pause before so blindly doing it again. But Yale’s complicity in allowing Kavanaugh to thrive goes deeper.

Kavanaugh’s second accuser, Deborah Ramirez, alleges that she was unwillingly confronted with Brett Kavanaugh’s penis while a freshman at Yale. And while some might argue that’s a cultural problem of the past, the very current culture of Yale somehow allowed Professor Jed Rubenfeld to exist. We’ve only recently learned that he’s the subject of an internal investigation into his behavior, though, before reporting on the allegations, Rubenfeld was allegedly told the investigation was “informal” and wouldn’t affect his position at the school.

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And then there’s Yale Professor Amy Chua. She has apparently been telling students that Kavanaugh only likes clerks with a “certain look,” and that look is apparently “like models.” She apparently told a male student at Yale Law that Kavanaugh: “tends to hire women who are generally attractive and then likes to send them to [Supreme Court Chief Justice John] Roberts.”

We also know that a Yale Professor, George Priest, helped to arrange for Brett Kavanaugh to replace Alex Azar as a clerk for Alex Kozinski, after Azar left his clerkship after just six weeks, for reasons that have still not been fully explained.

On Friday, 47 Yale Law faculty called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to take Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations against Brett Kavanaugh “seriously.”

I don’t think that letter nearly compensates for all the effort Yale Law has put into pushing Kavanaugh’s nomination forward. Yale faculty have had a significant role in creating, packaging, and selling Brett Kavanaugh.

Yale Law sold us a Mogwai, and now that it’s a Gremlin threatening to destroy the legitimacy of the Supreme Court, they’re saying “we should definitely stop feeding that thing after midnight.” It’s too little, far too late.

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Yale Law students seem to get what the Yale Law administrations does not. They’re not just protesting a judge who is an active threat to the rights of women and minorities in this country (thought that would be enough). They’re not just protesting a judge who has been credibly accused by multiple people of sexual assault and harassment (thought that would be enough). They’re protesting a culture that allows men like Kavanaugh to be promoted, protected, and praised.

That might not be enough to get the Senate Judiciary Committee to listen to them, but it damn sure better be enough to get the attention of the Yale Law School administration. One would hope that Yale Law would do everything it can to see that it never produces a man like Kavanaugh, or Clarence Thomas, ever again.

Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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