Law Schools

Law School Professors Protest Graduation Speaker -- Prepare For Fauxtroversy Over Free Speech

Former DHS Secretary withdraws from USC's Gould School of Law ceremony.

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Jeh Johnson (Paul, Weiss)

As we track the 2019 law school graduation speakers from around the nation, one institution that’s conspicuously missing is USC’s Gould School of Law. That wasn’t always the case, with former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson penciled into the commencement role long ago. But yesterday, Secretary Johnson, presently a partner at Paul Weiss, withdrew from the festivities in light of complaints raised by USC Law professors and mounting pressure from students.

A letter to the USC community from Dean Andrew Guzman announced the scheduling change:

I am writing to inform you that our invited keynote speaker, Jeh Johnson, former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security under President Obama, has withdrawn from this year’s USC Gould JD commencement ceremony.

I informed Secretary Johnson that some faculty and students have raised concerns about the immigration policies of the Obama Administration and, therefore, about having him as our commencement speaker. Secretary Johnson shared with me that he believes that graduations should be free of tension and political controversy and for this reason has decided not to speak.

Let’s take a second to applaud the former Secretary here. All too often, these protests over graduation speakers are met with the speaker and administration indignantly digging in their heels or walking away amid a veritable vineyard of sour grapes. Johnson’s response was entirely sensitive and appropriate — hearing from a legal luminary does not need to become a political clash and it’s the respectful move not just toward those protesting, but toward the other students and families who want to celebrate graduation without conflict.

The controversy arose after two professors, Daria Roithmayr and David Cruz, penned a letter to Dean Guzman noting that Johnson’s career in government service was marked by numerous troubling calls — some of which the courts have consistently rejected as illegal extensions of government power.

While the Trump administration’s commitment to family separation took America’s asylum policy to a new low, it was the Obama administration — and specifically Johnson’s DHS — that pursued detention in the first place, floating the canard repeated by the current administration that harsher treatment “deterred” asylum seekers. It’s a claim bereft of any empirical support, and yet here we are. From the professors’ letter:

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Detainee families were held behind bars for months, sleeping eight to a unit, in violation of their legal rights, with little exercise or stimulation for the children. Some detained mothers reportedly attempted suicide. Others tried to stage a ​hunger strike​ in protest of their detention. Parents reported that their children were losing a significant amount of weight while in ​detention​…. Federal courts curtailed the practice of family detention, ​finding that the government had offered absolutely no competent evidence whatsoever to prove Secretary Johnson’s deterrence claim, and that using family detention for purposes of deterrence was wholly ​impermissible​.​ ​Courts also found that the practice ​violated a legal agreement​ that had set the standard for the detention and treatment of immigrant children in the U.S. since 1997. ​

The concerns raised by the professors were echoed by others around USC in the form of a letter campaign to make Dean Guzman aware of the concerns. This campaign bore fruit this week with Johnson’s withdrawal.

No doubt there will be renewed hand-wringing from the Tucker Carlsons of the world that campus “political correctness” is striking again. Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions tried to get the entire Justice Department to harass​ colleges where students and faculty raise issues with troubling speakers. Seeing the “libs” shut down “one of their own” will no doubt generate a good deal of giddy faux controversy from the true campus free speech warriors at Fox News. Though, as the following thread points out, it’s actually the snowflakes on the right who consistently try to shut down speakers through the backdoor.

And there’s not necessarily anything wrong with that. Let them raise their concerns as they will. But don’t fall for this sanctimonious “leftist assault on free speech” nonsense. People protest speakers. Sometimes for good reasons… sometimes for bad reasons. The important thing to remember is that these protests aren’t “shutting down” dialogue — they are, in fact, dialogue.

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The professors and students at USC did their research and spoke their minds. They made a statement. Frankly, that’s a better rite of passage to set them off on their future careers than any hokey speech.

(Check out the professors’ full letter on the next page.)

Earlier: Law School Snowflakes Demand Safe Space Over Jeff Sessions Talk
2019 Law School Graduation Speaker Roundup
An Afternoon With Jeh Johnson, General Counsel of the Defense Department
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson Returns Home — To Paul, Weiss

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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