Politeness is a one-way street. You can openly mock some of the most prominent jurists in the nation if you’re on the right team, but playing for the other side opens you up to all sorts of nitpicking about the proper way to do things. It is a nonsense rule that explains a lot once you’re wise to it, like how Sotomayor’s comments on Kavanaugh required an apology but his “your fault for looking Mexican” concurrence was no biggie. Similar things are happening with campus speech. If you advocate for anything to the left of Palantir’s recent manifesto, you should expect public scrutiny. Protestors are getting cast as villains for opposing the normalization of right-wing power grabs at law school events. New York Post has coverage:
A speaking event at UCLA’s law school erupted into turmoil Tuesday night when a Department of Homeland Security attorney faced loud disruptions from student protesters and activists.
James Percival, general counsel for DHS, was invited by the Federalist Society’s UCLA chapter to address law students on campus.
But the appearance quickly turned contentious as more than 150 demonstrators gathered outside, chanting slogans targeting the Trump administration, including “No ICE, No KKK, No Fascist USA.”
No reporting suggests Green Day was present, but I’m sure they were there in spirit:
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Not sure if its uplifting or a telling weakness of protest’s efficacy that a decade-old chant is just as prescient now. As far as the article’s “eruption into turmoil” characterization of the event goes, it couldn’t have been that disruptive if the UCLA admin’s response was “Yup, that stuff just kinda happens and we move along”:
“UCLA Law is committed to free speech and academic freedom, including perspectives that may be controversial or deeply contested,” the school said in a statement to Fox News. “This student-organized event, which proceeded to its conclusion, was one instance of those principles in practice.”
For all of the complaining about the protest, Percival was able to give his talk. Before the framing of this as a bunch of out-of-control leftists piling on the little old lawyer of the deportation branch gets blown out of proportion, remember:
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While we’re here, let’s talk about the students. They may have dropped a couple of F bombs and called DHS a bunch of Nazis, but let’s keep a clear head about how much weight that tier of name calling carries. The DHS knows what they’re doing — it isn’t like they used a neo-Nazi song for ICE recruitment or looked like they’ve brushed off the vintage Hugo Boss to the point that the Germans stepped in because they want to shy away from the Nazi comparisons. What’s next? Trying to anger Darth Sidious by calling him a Sith Lord? They know what they are and are shameless about it. The only silver lining would be that calling them what they are is meant to provoke observers in to recognition, but between the COVID brain damage and AI overuse frying people’s comparative thinking, that ship has sailed. The people who aren’t looking and seeing the obvious are the same ones that didn’t realize Homelander was there to make fun of them until season 4.
The real story is that the things done in protest are nowhere near as newsworthy as the things being protested: Justice Kavanaugh greenlighting racial profiling; the administration’s abdication of the rule of law in deportation proceedings; a poorly trained militia acting as judge, jury, and executioners in broad daylight; and the list goes on. Don’t be swayed by framings that suggest protestors’ discontent in and of itself is a threat to speakers — the real threats are the men with guns openly stating that they will erase your voice if you raise it.
Lefty Students Hijack UCLA Event From Homeland Security’s Top Lawyer [New York Post]
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boat builder who is learning to swim and is interested in rhetoric, Spinozists and humor. Getting back in to cycling wouldn’t hurt either. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by Tweet/Bluesky at @WritesForRent.