Conservative Judges Won’t Hire Columbia Law Clerks Over Protests

A group of conservative federal judges say they won’t hire law clerks from Columbia University, saying they have “lost confidence” in the institution over its handling of student protests tied to the Israel-Hamas war.

The 11 judges — largely from Texas and all appointed by Donald Trump — said in a Monday letter to Columbia University President Minouche Shafik that they won’t hire law clerks who attended the institution as either undergraduates or law students, starting with next year’s entering class.

“Columbia has instead become an incubator of bigotry. As a result, Columbia has disqualified itself from educating the future leaders of our country,” reads the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg Law. Spokespeople for Columbia didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The letter was signed by US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Judge James Ho, US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Judge Elizabeth Branch, and US Court of Federal Claims Judge Matthew Solomson, who previously said he won’t hire students who signed letters he believed effectively support the Hamas terror attacks on Israel on Oct. 7.

Three judges with the Northern District of Texas — Matthew Kacsmaryk, Brantley Starr, and James Hendrix — also signed the letter. They are joined by Western District of Texas Judges Alan Albright and David Counts, Eastern District of Texas Judge Jeremy Kernodle and the Southern District of Texas’s Drew Tipton.

US District Judge Tilman “Trip” Self III of the Middle District of Georgia, Daniel Traynor of the North Dakota federal trial court and Stephen Vaden of the US Court of International Trade are also signatories.

The judges said that if Columbia “was serious about reclaiming its once-distinguished reputation,” it would hand down “serious consequences” for protesting students and faculty members. They also said the university had “double standards when it comes to free speech and student misconduct,” suggesting that similar actions by religious conservatives over abortion would face a “profoundly different” response.

And they called for “viewpoint diversity” throughout Columbia. “Both professors and administrators are on the front lines of the campus disruptions, encouraging the virulent spread of antisemitism and bigotry,” the judges wrote.

Ho and Branch previously have said they won’t hire law clerks from Yale or Stanford following incidents at those law schools where conservative speakers faced campus blowback from progressives.

The letter comes as Columbia on Monday canceled its main commencement ceremony scheduled for next week after protests on its campus.

Protesters set up an encampment on the Columbia campus on April 17, demanding that the university divest from companies tied to Israel. Shafik authorized New York Police Department officers to arrest protestors the next day, and again on April 30 after protestors began occupying a building on campus.