Nearly 120 woke Yale Law School students disrupted a bipartisan panel about civil liberties last week by trying to shout down and intimidate the speakers — primarily attacking a speaker from Alliance Defending Freedom —who had to be escorted out of the building by police. One of America’s best and brightest future Ivy League graduates screeched at the ADF representative: “I will literally fight you, bitch!”
The panel, which was hosted by the Federalist Society, featured Kristen Waggoner from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), and Monica Miller with the progressive American Humanist Association, according to a report by the Washington Free Beacon.
The March 10 discussion was held in hopes to show students that a liberal atheist and a conservative Christian can find common ground on free speech issues, a member of the Federalist Society told the outlet.
The two speakers reportedly discussed the recent U.S. Supreme Court case, Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski, in which the Court ruled 8-1 in favor of a Christian student who was barred from sharing his faith at Georgia Gwinnett College in 2016.
“It was pretty much the most innocuous thing you could talk about,” the Federalist Society member told the Free Beacon.
Then, nearly 120 law students showed up to protest the event, wielding signs attacking ADF.
Law professor Kate Stith, who was moderating the panel, was reportedly forced to pause the event after one student told a member of the conservative group that she would “literally fight you, bitch.”
In one video, Stith can be heard reprimanding the law students about Yale’s free speech policies, to which the students countered by arguing that it was their First Amendment right to disrupt the panel.
“Come on, grow up,” the professor can be heard saying, which elicited a simultaneous jeering from the student protesters.
“This is free speech,” one student insisted of the disruption, to which the professor replied by stating, “No, you’re disrupting the free speech here.”
“Then talk louder,” another student said.
As the student protesters left the event, they continued to try to drown out the speakers by yelling “Shame! Shame!” and “Protect trans kids!” The students also reportedly stomped, shouted, clapped, sung, and pounded on the walls, making it difficult to hear the panel.
Yale Law School Associate Dean Ellen Cosgrove was present the entire time, but did not confront any of the students, despite their actions violating the school’s free speech policies, the Free Beacon notes.
Police officers reportedly arrived at the end of the event to escort Waggoner and Miller out of the building. Two members of the Federalist Society said they were grabbed by the crowd as they tried to leave.
“It was disturbing to witness law students whipped into a mindless frenzy,” Waggoner told the Free Beacon. “I did not feel it was safe to get out of the room without security.”
Waggoner also told the Yale Daily News, that “Future lawyers should have the critical thinking skills, intellectual curiosity, humility, and maturity to engage with ideas and legal principles that they may disagree with.”
“Unfortunately, some students who attended the Federalist Society event refused to allow others to speak and acted in an aggressive and hostile manner towards me, Professor Kate Stith, and Monica Miller from the American Humanist Association,” she added.
After the panel, more than 400 law students — over 60 percent of the school’s student body — signed an open letter attacking the police presence at the panel, claiming it endangered “peaceful student protesters.”
“The danger of police violence in this country is intensified against Black LGBTQ people, and particularly Black trans people,” the letter read.
“Police-related trauma includes, but is certainly not limited to, physical harm,” the letter added. “Even with all of the privilege afforded to us at YLS, the decision to allow police officers in as a response to the protest put YLS’s queer student body at risk of harm.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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