Faculty Letter in Support of Ilya Shapiro, January 31, 2022

Note: Following the initial delivery of this letter on Jan. 31, Georgetown Law dean William Treanor announced that Ilya Shapiro was suspended pending an investigation into his comments on the basis of whether they constituted harassment or discrimination. FIRE condemned Georgetown Law's action, and continues to invite faculty to add their names to the list of signatories below. They may request to be added by emailing facultyoutreach@thefire.org.

Dear Dean Treanor:

We understand that some have called for Ilya Shapiro to be fired from his position as Executive Director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, because of his tweet criticizing President Biden’s pledge to appoint a black woman as a Justice. We think such a firing—or subjecting Shapiro to disciplinary action of any kind based on his tweet—would be contrary to basic academic freedom principles, which Georgetown rightly applies (1) to “all faculty,” including “lecturer[s]” such as Shapiro, and not just tenure-track faculty, and (2) to “professional service” and “all the domains of [faculty] academic activity,” which would include public commentary by public intellectuals, and not just “research” and “teaching.”

We agree that the reference in the tweet to “a lesser black woman” was a poor way of expressing the message (and Shapiro’s apology seems to agree as well). “[Sri Srinivasan] doesn’t fit into the latest intersectionality hierarchy so we’ll get [a less-qualified] black woman” is presumably what Shapiro meant to say. But setting aside that one mistake—which should not be seen as a fireable offense—the substance of the message, which is that Sri Srinivasan is the most qualified progressive nominee, and that it’s wrong for the President to pass him over because of race and sex, is a position that is most certainly protected by academic freedom principles of “[f]ree inquiry and unconstrained publication of the results of inquiry.”

To be sure, the substantive position about the President’s pledge, and about the relative qualifications of the various possible appointees, is not a position that all of us endorse. Indeed, some of us have publicly disagreed with it.

But academic freedom protects Shapiro’s views, regardless of whether we agree with them or not. And debate about the President’s nomination, and about whether race and sex play a proper role in such nominations more generally, would be impoverished—at Georgetown and elsewhere—if this view could not be safely expressed in universities. Indeed, to the extent that people do think it’s proper for a President to promise to fill a position with a member of a particular group, they can only have real confidence in that conclusion if they know that the contrary view can be freely supported and discussed, and has been found unpersuasive on the merits rather than silenced by fear of firing. That is famously the way academic discourse about science operates. And it is true for moral and political judgments as well.

More broadly, firing Shapiro for expressing his views will send a message to others in Georgetown—both faculty (and especially untenured faculty) and students—that debate about matters having to do with race and sex is no longer free; that the promises of academic freedom are empty; and that dissent from the majority views within the law school is not tolerated. That will chill far more than just honest discussions of this particular Presidential nomination.

Sincerely,

Eugene Volokh, Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California, Los Angeles
Samuel J. Abrams, Professor of Politics and Social Science, Sarah Lawrence College
Jonathan H. Adler, Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law, Case Western Reserve University
Ethan Akin, Professor of Mathematics, The City College of New York
J. Joel Alicea, Assistant Professor of Law, Columbus School of Law, The Catholic University of America
Adeline A. Allen, Associate Professor of Law, Trinity Law School
M. D. Allen, Professor of English Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley
Albert W. Alschuler, Julius Kreeger Professor Emeritus, University of Chicago Law School
Luis Alvarez, Jr., President and CEO, University of Virginia Law School Foundation
Anthony Anadio, Visiting Assistant Professor in History, SUNY Empire State College
Kenneth Anderson, Professor of Law, American University Washington College of Law
Josh Avratin, Associate Clinical Professor of Law, University of Chicago
Howard Baetjer Jr., Lecturer, Department of Economics, Towson University
J. Michael Bailey, Professor, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University
Jeremy D. Bailey, Sanders Chair in Law and Liberty, Classics and Letters & Director, Institute for the American Constitutional Heritage, University of Oklahoma
H. Robert Baker, Associate Professor of History, Georgia State University
William Baude, Professor of Law, University of Chicago
D. Benjamin Beard, Professor Emeritus of Law, University of Idaho College of Law
Avi Bell, Professor of Law, University of San Diego
Tom W. Bell, Professor, Chapman University Fowler School of Law
David E. Bernstein, University Professor, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
April Bleske-Rechek, Professor of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
Bernard S. Black, Chabraja Professor, Northwestern University, Pritzker Law School and Kellogg School of Management
Josh Blackman, Professor of Law, South Texas College of Law Houston
Walter E. Block, Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics, Loyola University New Orleans
Jason Brennan, Robert J. and Elizabeth Flanagan Family Professor, McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University
Frank Widar Brevik, Professor of English, Savannah College of Art and Design
Kingsley R. Browne, Professor of Law, Wayne State University Law School
Douglas B. Brumm, Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering, Michigan Technological University
John Bullock, Professor of Chemistry, Bennington College
Keegan Callanan, Associate Professor of Political Science, Middlebury College
Edward Cantu, Associate Professor, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law
Bryan Caplan, Professor of Economics, George Mason University
Paul G. Cassell, Ronald N. Boyce Presidential Professor of Criminal Law and University Distinguished Professor of Law
Lee R. Cerling, Associate Professor of Clinical Business Communication, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California
Joseph Cesario, Professor of Psychology, Michigan State University
Nicholas A. Christakis, Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science, Yale University
Jack Citrin, Emeritus Professor of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley
Stephen L. Clark, Chancellor's Professor, Mathematics and Statistics, Missouri University of Science and Technology
Matthew R. Cleary, Associate Professor of Political Science, Syracuse University
Bell Julian Clement, Professional Lecturer, Department of History, George Washington University
Eric Clements, History Professor, Southeast Missouri State University
Jeffrey Collins, Professor of History, Queen’s University
Kevin Cope, Associate Professor of Law and Public Policy, University of Virginia
Clayton E. Cramer, History Adjunct Instructor, College of Western Idaho
Marc J. Defant, Professor of Geochemistry, University of South Florida
Pedro Domingos, Professor Emeritus of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington
Marco Del Guidice, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of New Mexico
Andrew R. DeLoach, Associate Professor of Law and Director, Center for Human Rights, Trinity Law School
Raj M. Desai, Professor of International Development, Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
Gregory Dolin, Associate Professor of Law, University of Baltimore School of Law
Shlomo Dubnov, Professor, Musica, Computer Science, and Engineering, University of California, San Diego
Richard F. Duncan, Sherman S. Welpton, Jr. and Warren R. Wise Professor of Law, University of Nebraska
Dina F. El Mahdy, Associate Professor of Accounting, Earl G. Graves School of Business and Management, Morgan State University
Anthony Ephremides, Distinguished University Professor Emeritus & Cynthia Kim Eminent Professor of Information Technology, University of Maryland, College Park
Richard A. Epstein, Laurence A Tisch Professor of Law, New York University School of Law; Peter and Kirsten Bedford Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution; James Parker Hall Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and Senior Lecturer, University of Chicago
C. Christine Fair, Professor, Security Studies Program, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
Rachel Ferguson, Director, Free Enterprise Center & Assistant Dean, College of Business & Professor of Business Ethics, Concordia University Chicago
George P Fletcher, Cardozo Professor of Jurisprudence, Columbia University School of Law
Brendan C. Fox, Adjunct Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Jonathan Gallant, Professor Emeritus of Genome Sciences, Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington
Nicole Stelle Garnett, John P. Murphy Foundation Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame
Richard W. Garnett, Paul J. Schierl/Fort Howard Corporation Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame
Stephen P. Garvey, A. Robert Noll Professor of Law, Cornell Law School
Nicholas Georgakopoulos, Harold R. Woodard Professor of Law, Indiana University, Robert H. McKinney School of Law
Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University
Scott Gerber, Adjunct Associate Professor, Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
Stephen Gilles, Professor of Law, Quinnipiac University
Tom Ginsburg, Professor of International Law, Ludwig and Hilde Wolf Research Scholar, and Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago Law School
Oleg Gleizer, Director, Olga Radko Endowed Math Circle, University of California, Los Angeles
Michael J. Glennon, Professor of Constitutional and International Law, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University
Mark A. Graber, Regents Professor, University of Maryland Carey School of Law
Mark Grabowski, Associate Professor of Communications, Adelphi University
Daniel Greco, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Yale University
Darij Grinberg, Assistant Professor in Mathematics, Drexel University
Philip Hamburger, Maurice & Hilda Friedman Professor of Law, Columbia University
Victor Davis Hanson, Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow, Classics and Military History, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
Steven F. Hayward, Senior Resident Scholar, Institute of Governmental Studies and Visiting Lecturer, University of California, Berkeley, School of Law
Eugene Heath, Professor of Philosophy, State University of New York at New Paltz
Robert Heidt, Professor Emeritus of Law, Indiana University Mauer School of Law
Arthur D. Hellman, Professor of Law Emeritus, University of Pittsburgh
M. Todd Henderson, Michael J. Marks Professor of Law, University of Chicago
Gail Heriot, Professor of Law, University of San Diego
Robert W. Hillman, Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus, University of California, Davis
Rosemary L. Hopcroft, Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Cooley Howarth, Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Dayton School of Law
Thomas D. Howes, Lecturer in Politics, Princeton University
James Huffman, Professor and Dean Emeritus, Lewis & Clark Law School
William A. Jacobson, Clinical Professor of Law and Director, Cornell Securities Law Clinic, Cornell Law School
Rob Jenkins, Associate Professor of English, Georgia State University - Perimeter College
Andrew L. Johns, Professor of History, Brigham Young University
KC Johnson, Professor of History, Brooklyn College & CUNY Graduate Center
Richard S. Kay, Oliver Ellsworth Research Professor & Wallace Stevens Professor of Law Emeritus, University of Connecticut School of Law
Michael Karanicolas, Executive Director, Institute for Technology, Law & Policy, University of California, Los Angeles
Zvi M. Kedem, Professor of Computer Science, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University
Randall Kennedy, Michael R. Klein Professor, Harvard Law School
Charles R. Kesler, Dengler-Dykeman Distinguished Professor of Government, Claremont McKenna College and Claremont Graduate University
Amna Khalid, Associate Professor, Department of History, Carleton College
Donald Kilmer, Constitutional Law Professor, Lincoln Law School of San Jose
Adam Kissel, Adjunct Instructor, Liberty University
Sergiu Klainerman, Fine Professor of Mathematics, Princeton University
Joseph M. Knippenberg, Professor of Politics, Oglethorpe University
Joerg W. Knipprath, Professor of Law, Southwestern Law School
Eugene Kontorovich, Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Vladimir Kontorovich, Professor of Economics, Haverford College
David B. Kopel, Adjunct Professor, University of Denver, Sturm College of Law
Andrew M. Koppelman, John Paul Stevens Professor of Law, Northwestern University
Julian G. Ku, Maurice A. Deane Distinguished Professor of Constitutional Law, Hofstra University
Timur Kuran, Professor of Economics and Political Science and Gorter Family Professor of Islamic Studies, Duke University
Kurt T. Lash, E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Richmond School of Law
Gary Lawson, Associate Dean for Intellectual Life & Philip S. Beck Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law
Anne Lawton, Professor Emerita, Michigan State University College of Law
Joseph K. Leahy, Professor of Law, South Texas College of Law Houston
Brian Leiter, Karl N. Llewellyn Professor of Jurisprudence, University of Chicago
Marc Lendler, Professor of Government, Smith College
Douglas B. Levene, Professor-from-Practice, Peking University School of Transnational Law
Kim Lewis, University Distinguished Professor, Director, Antimicrobial Discovery Center, Department of Biology, Northeastern University
Tony Lima, Emeritus Professor of Economics, California State University, East Bay
Kate Litvak, Professor of Law, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
Eric Mack, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Tulane University
Adam J. MacLeod, Professor of Law, Faulkner University, Thomas Goode Jones School of Law
Julia D. Mahoney, John S. Battle Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
Paul G. Mahoney, David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor, University of Virginia School of Law
Michael W. McConnell, Richard & Frances Mallery Professor, Stanford Law School
John O. McGinnis, George C. Dix Professor in Constitutional Law, Northwestern University
Kenneth B. McIntyre, Professor of Political Science, Sam Houston State University
John McWhorter, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University
Abraham H. Miller, Emeritus Professor, Political Science, University of Cincinnati
Geoffrey Miller, Associate Professor, Psychology Department, University of New Mexico
Paul D. Miller, Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
Mark Moller, Professor of Law, DePaul University College of Law
Adam Mossoff, Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Vincent Phillip Muñoz, Tocqueville Associate Professor of Political Science and Concurrent Associate Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame
Stephen J. Morse, Ferdinand Wakeman Hubbell Professor of Law & Professor of Psychology & Law in Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania
Christopher Newman, Associate Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Dennis R. Nolan, Webster Distinguished Professor of Labor Law Emeritus, University of South Carolina
Danny Noorlander, Associate Professor of History, SUNY Oneonta
William Otis, Adjunct Professor of Law, Georgetown University
Daphne Patai, Professor Emerita, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Dennis Patterson, Board of Governors Professor of Law and Philosophy, Rutgers University School of Law
Richard Prystowsky, Retired Vice President of Academic Affairs and Student Services, Marion Technical College
Michael Stokes Paulsen, Distinguished University Chair and Professor of Law, University of St. Thomas
Juliana Geran Pilon, Senior Fellow, Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization
Roger Pilon, B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute
Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology, Harvard University
Michael Poliakoff, President, American Council of Trustees and Alumni
Daniel Polsby, Dean Emeritus, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
David G. Post, I. Herman Stern Professor of Law (Ret.), Temple University Beasley School of Law
Paul du Quenoy, President, Palm Beach Freedom Institute
Felix Rabinovich, Adjunct Professor, Department of Computer Sciences, California State University, Northridge
Michael D. Ramsey, Professor of Law, University of San Diego Law School
Michael Rappaport, Hugh & Hazel Darling Foundation Professor of Law, University of San Diego
Stuart Reges, Teaching Professor, Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington
Glenn Harlan Reynolds, Beauchamp Brogan Distinguished Professor of Law, The University of Tennessee
Lev Reyzin, Professor of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science, University of Illinois Chicago
John C. Rodrigue, Lawrence and Theresa Salameno Professor, Department of History, Stonehill College
Mark Carl Rom, Associate Professor of Government and Public Policy, McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University
Bradley W. Root, Associate Professor of History, St. Mary's University (TX)
Christine Rosen, Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, University of Virginia
Shawn A. Ross, Professor of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University
Adam Scales, Professor of Law, Rutgers Law School
Stephen Sachs, Antonin Scalia Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Catherine Salmon, Psychology Professor, University of Redlands
Aaron Saiger, Professor of Law, Fordham University School of Law
Saswati Sarkar, Professor, Electrical and Systems Engineering, University of Pennsylvania
Mark S. Scarberry, Professor of Law, Pepperdine University Caruso School of Law
Jon D. Schaff, Professor of Political Science, Northern State University
Alan Schwartz, Sterling Professor of Law, Yale Law School
Andrew A. Schwartz, Professor of Law, University of Colorado School of Law
Maimon Schwarzschild, Professor of Law, University of San Diego
John Schwenkler, Professor of Philosophy, Florida State University
Andrew Sepielli, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Toronto
E. Joseph Sharkey, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Washington, Tacoma
Luke C. Sheahan, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Duquesne University
Timothy C. Shiell, Professor of Philosophy and Director, Menard Center for the Study of Institutions and Innovation, University of Wisconsin-Stout
Bradley A. Smith, Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault Professor of Law, Capital University Law School
Thomas A. Smith, Professor of Law, University of San Diego
Jeffrey Aaron Snyder, Associate Professor of Educational Studies, Carleton College
Alan Sokal, Professor Emeritus of Physics, New York University and Professor of Mathematics, University College London
Ilya Somin, Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
Mark Steckbeck, Associate Professor of Economics & Lundy Chair in Business Philosophy, Campbell University Lundy-Fetterman School of Business
Richard Stith, Professor Emeritus of Law, Valparaiso University
Lee J. Strang, John W. Stoepler Professor of Law & Values, University of Toledo College of Law
Nadine Strossen, John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law, Emerita, New York Law School
Donald W Swanton, Associate Professor Emeritus of Finance and of Mathematics, Roosevelt University
David Talcott, Associate Professor of Philosophy, The King's College (NY)
Martha C. Taylor, Professor and Chair, Department of Classics, Loyola University Maryland
Fernando R. Tesón, Eminent Scholar Emeritus, Florida State University College of Law
Christopher Tollefsen, Professor and Chair, Department of Philosophy, University of South Carolina
Ari Trachtenberg, Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Boston University
Michael Trigoboff, Computer Science Department, Portland Community College
Harald Uhlig, Bruce Allen and Barbara Ritzenthaler Professor of Economics, University of Chicago
Emily Underwood, Associate Clinical Professor of Law and Bluhm-Helfand Director, Innovation Clinic, University of Chicago Law School
David R. Upham, Associate Professor & Chair of Politics, University of Dallas
Ezequiel Viñao, Adjunct Associate Professor of Music, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University
Alexander Volokh, Associate Professor of Law, Emory University
E. Gregory Wallace, Professor of Law, Campbell University School of Law
Kevin C. Walsh, Professor of Law, University of Richmond School of Law
Brandon Warmke, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Bowling Green State University
Ashlie C. Warnick, Professor of Economics, Northern Virginia Community College
Michael Weingrad, Professor of Judaic Studies, The Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies, Portland State University
James Weinstein, Dan Cracchiolo Chair in Constitutional Law, Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Arizona State University
Keith E. Whittington, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Politics, Princeton University
Clark Wolf, Director of Bioethics and Professor of Philosophy, Iowa State University
Abraham Wyner, Professor of Statistics and Data Science, University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business
Scott Yenor, Professor of Political Science, Boise State University
Ernest A. Young, Alston & Bird Professor, Duke University
David Zarfes, Clinical Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School
Jonathan Zimmerman, Judy and Howard Berkowitz Professor in Education, University of Pennsylvania
Todd J. Zywicki, George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University

Note: Further signatures will be continually added as they arrive. If you're interested in adding your signature to this letter, please email facultyoutreach@thefire.org. University titles are for identification purposes.