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Georgetown Law School has placed incoming administrator Ilya Shapiro on administrative leave, pending an investigation into whether he violated the university’s antidiscrimination policy with disparaging tweets about President Biden’s intention to name a Black woman to the Supreme Court, The Washington Post reported.
The Georgetown Black Law Student Association called for Shapiro’s termination last week after he tweeted that his preferred nominee, D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan, “doesn't fit into the latest intersectionality hierarchy so we’ll get lesser black woman.”
Shapiro also said that if Biden does choose a Black woman, “his nominee will always have an asterisk attached.”
In an email to the law school community, William M. Treanor, dean and executive vice president of the Georgetown University Law Center, wrote that he placed Shapiro on administrative leave “pending an investigation into whether he violated our policies and expectations on professional conduct, non-discrimination, and anti-harassment, the results of which will inform our next steps.”
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education wrote in a statement that it “strongly condemns Georgetown Law’s suspension and investigation of Ilya Shapiro for tweets about potential replacements for Justice Breyer that some found offensive … Dean William Treanor has made the wrong decision in authorizing this witch hunt, and every day that it continues is an affront to free speech and fairness at Georgetown.”
Shapiro told the Post that he expects to be vindicated. “I’m optimistic that Georgetown’s investigation will be fair, impartial, and professional, though there’s really not much to investigate,” he wrote in an email. “And I’m confident that it will reach the only reasonable conclusion: my Tweet didn’t violate any university rule or policy, and indeed is protected by Georgetown policies on free expression.”
