Ethics panel supports judges’ clerk ban over anti-Israel protests at Columbia

A group of eight federal judges who vowed to boycott hiring law clerks who graduated from Columbia University in response to the school’s handling of anti-Israel protests have been cleared of any wrongdoing, an appeals court panel decided on Monday.

The Judicial Council for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit upheld a June ruling by the circuit’s chief judge, Priscilla Richman, dismissing a complaint against eight unnamed judges. The complaint was initially filed by an unnamed state prisoner against one appellate judge and seven federal district judges, according to the decision.

The complaint argued that if judges are willing to punish Columbia graduates, they could be liable to “discriminate and retaliate” against defendants with different political views and will be biased against any current or former member of the university’s community, whether appearing before them as an attorney or party.” Richman ultimately found that the substance of the complaint “does not support a finding of misconduct,” and the ethics panel on Aug. 2 affirmed that.

Although the judges were unnamed, they matched the description of eight of the 13 judges who signed a letter to Columbia’s president announcing they would not hire clerks from the university, beginning with the class entering in 2024.

The judges, all appointees of former President Donald Trump, wrote in the letter that Columbia was functioning as an “incubator of bigotry” and that they had “lost confidence” in the university over its handling of students protesting against Israel.

One signature on the letter was from 5th Circuit Judge James Ho, who previously led a boycott of clerks from Yale University and Stanford University due to separate instances of students disrupting conservative speakers and judges at both schools.

The seven others who signed the Columbia letter are from Texas and include U.S. District Judges Alan Albright, David Counts, James Hendrix, Matthew Kacsymaryk, Jeremy Kernodle, Brantley Starr, and Drew Tipton.

Columbia University was the epicenter of anti-Israel protests earlier this year, culminating in the New York Police Department breaking up the encampment and taking back a university building that protesters had forcefully taken.

In early May, the protests became so disruptive that Columbia University announced it would not hold a universitywide graduation ceremony.