Twitter Mounts Bipartisan Defense of Ilya Shapiro as Georgetown Law Puts Him on Paid Leave
A bipartisan Twitter alliance is appealing to Georgetown Law not to fire libertarian legal scholar Ilya Shapiro after he questioned President Joe Biden’s commitment to appoint a black woman to the Supreme Court.
In a pair of tweets posted last Wednesday, Shapiro of the libertarian think tank the CATO Institute speculated that any woman who matched Biden’s criteria would always be accompanied by an “asterisk”:
Objectively best pick for Biden is Sri Srinivasan, who is solid prog & v smart. Even has identify politics benefit of being first Asian (Indian) American. But alas doesn’t fit into the latest intersectionality hierarchy so we’ll get lesser black woman. Thank heaven for small favors?
Because Biden said he’s only consider[ing] black women for SCOTUS, his nominee will always have an asterisk attached. Fitting that the Court takes up affirmative action next term.
Shapiro later offered a number of apologies. In one, he wrote that his “poor choice of words” had worked to undermine his message.
Shapiro stated that he stood by his initial point, which was that qualified men and women of all races should not be excluded from being considered to replace outgoing Associate Justice Stephen Breyer on the high court.
Despite multiple clarifications, Georgetown Law placed Shapiro on paid leave Monday, pending an investigation of his tweets. The entire ordeal has apparently put in jeopardy Shapiro’s position as an incoming lecturer.
Bill Treanor, the Dean of the Georgetown University Law Center, called Shapiro’s tweets “antithetical” to the school’s mission in a Monday statement which announced a hold on Shapiro’s employment.
While Shapiro might appear to be a shoe-in to join others who have been canceled after making controversial statements, the attorney is receiving a stunning amount of bipartisan support online.
Bari Weiss portrayed the saga as one which infers that apologizing for mistakes might no longer be appropriate.
Do apologies mean anything anymore? Consider the case of Ilya Shapiro. https://t.co/EfYwlKdtgT
— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) January 31, 2022
Zack Beauchamp of Vox argued that while he views Shapiro’s tweets as being abhorrent, the school currently has an opportunity to take a stand for “academic freedom.”
Two things that are both true:
1) Ilya Shapiro’s Supreme Court tweets were offensive and worthy of harsh criticism
2) The same people who criticized the tweets should be first in line to criticize Georgetown, whose punishment of Shapiro threatens academic freedom
— Zack Beauchamp (@zackbeauchamp) January 31, 2022
Tunku Varadarajan of the New York University Law School, called the treatment of Shapiro “Maoist.”
The mau-mauing of Ilya Shapiro is disgraceful.
He is a good man and a terrific scholar now being forced to abase himself by the race-obsessed left.
LEAVE HIM ALONE.
— Tunku Varadarajan (@tunkuv) January 30, 2022
Cindy Horswell of the Houston Chronicle, shared a piece from National Review Monday, and commented, “Don’t fire Ilya Shapiro.”
Don’t Fire Ilya Shapiro https://t.co/gI0ysTQ7TD
— cindy horswell (@chorswell) January 30, 2022
Other people form varying backgrounds also shared their support for the embattled Shapiro.
Ilya Shapiro is a schmuck and probably a racist and sexist too. But his reactionary Tweets should not lead to a suspension.
Progressives, in particular, should be very weary of employers monitoring public speech!
— Cas Mudde 😷 (@CasMudde) January 31, 2022
While the “lesser black woman” phrasing was atrocious and misguided, calling the remarks racist or sexist reflect a bad faith reading of Ilya Shapiro’s point. His apology ought to suffice without further action from Georgetown. https://t.co/oP2ggLyvAL
— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) January 28, 2022
Don’t Fire Ilya Shapiro – our @NRO editorial … https://t.co/ygf7mhd5WU
— Andy McCarthy (@AndrewCMcCarthy) January 30, 2022
This the crux of it. Everyone knows Ilya Shapiro is not a racist and did not tweet racist material. He lodged a critique of affirmative action. The @GeorgetownLaw administration rather play footsie with grievance politics than stand up for someone of integrity. https://t.co/4h5p7rqIdn
— Erielle Davidson (@politicalelle) January 31, 2022
In light of @Georgetown‘s decision to put Ilya Shapiro on administrative leave pending an investigation, let’s recall what the school said when a liberal professor tweeted that GOP senators “deserve miserable deaths…”
Oh yeah, nothing. Just a stmt saying her views are her own. pic.twitter.com/JGbqYTFQOq
— Spencer Brown (@itsSpencerBrown) January 31, 2022
Ilya Shapiro is a racist embarrassment, and also academic institutions should give their professors extremely wide berth when it comes to speech and academic freedom, online or otherwise, and this is an inappropriate move by Georgetown Law. https://t.co/itijmM9fRL
— Jill Filipovic (@JillFilipovic) January 31, 2022
You see what happens to someone like Ilya Shapiro, who apologized for a poorly-worded tweet, and then wonder why individuals might choose to be anonymous on here? Really? Some prefer no grace, only ruination of lives and livelihoods.
— Kimberly Ross (@SouthernKeeks) January 31, 2022
