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Thirteen conservative US federal judges announced their refusal to appoint students from Columbia Law School or undergraduates in response to its handling of the demonstrations in support of Gaza.
The justices, all appointed by former President Donald Trump, described the Manhattan campus as an “incubator of intolerance” in a letter to Columbia University President Minouche Shafik and Law School Dean Gillian Lester.
“Professors and administrators alike are at the forefront of campus unrest, encouraging the spread of anti-Semitism and intolerance,” the letter said.
Spokesmen for Columbia University and the Law School did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and Columbia University on Monday canceled its main graduation ceremony due to the ongoing protests.
Federal judges appoint law school graduates annually for one-year practical training, which may help them obtain prestigious, high-paying jobs, and the judiciary wrote that the boycott will apply to students entering Columbia University this fall.
The letter demanded “serious consequences” for students and faculty who participated in campus protests.
Protests against the Gaza war spread to dozens of American universities, and demonstrators sat in a protest camp on the main campus in Columbia for weeks before some of them temporarily took control of the Hamilton Building last week. New York City police evacuated the building and arrested more than 100 people.
All of the judges who signed the letter were appointed by Trump, who praised the NYPD’s handling of the protesters, describing them as “angry lunatics who sympathize with Hamas.”
Two-thirds of the judges who signed the letter are in Texas. The thirteen judges represent a small segment of about 900 federal judges in the country.
Source: Sky News
2024-05-07 08:21:07