PrintStanford Law students who shouted down federal judge demand reporter hide their names and obscure their faces
Apparently, you don't have to be that bright to get into Stanford's law school, formerly regarded as highly competitive and demanding in its legal education. The budding totalitarians there who don't believe in free speech for people with whom they disagree also apparently believe that they have to right to control news coverage of their heinous acts. Are they ashamed of what they did, or do they just worry that they may not be able to cash in after graduation with lucrative offers or prestigious clerkships?
Washington Free Beacon reporter Aaron Sibarium "appeared Sunday on Fox News and shared his blunt response to 'hypocritical' Stanford Law School students who have demanded their names be removed from his reporting about their controversial activism."
The WFB summarizes:
"They didn't just shout down a sitting federal judge," Sibarium explained to Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Will Cain. "They also posted the names and faces of ... every [Federalist Society] board member ... around the school in a concerted effort to shame their peers and pressure them out of hosting the event. And then those exact same students emailed me to say, 'Oh, by naming us in the story, you're ginning up harassment.' So, it's really quite hypocritical."
Last week, Lily Bou claimed in a message to the Free Beacon that Sibarium had no right to quote her and other board members of Stanford's chapter of the National Lawyers Guild — which helped organize the protest against Duncan — praising the protesters' conduct as "Stanford Law School at its best." Mary Cate Hickman insisted the Free Beacon "anonymize" footage of a follow-up student protest of Stanford Law School dean Jenny Martinez over her apology to Duncan.
Some of the hooligans (YouTube screen grab).
Mike LaChance of Legal Insurrection covered the imbroglio and has collected a series of tweets from Sibarium that are to the point, well argued, and highly amusing:
NEW: The same students who plastered the names and faces of the Stanford Federalist Society all over the school are now demanding anonymity from the Free Beacon.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) March 17, 2023
They say we've violated their right to privacy by identifying them.
You can't make it up.🧵 https://t.co/ZESNwGzLl1
On Sunday, I identified board members of the Stanford National Lawyers Guild--one of the groups responsible for the posters--who in a public statement described the protest as "Stanford Law School at its best."
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) March 17, 2023
A few hours later, the board demanded I redact their names.
One of the board members, Lily Bou, demanding that we remove her name and those of her classmates. "Listing our names serves no purpose other than to invite abuse and harassment," she wrote in an email.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) March 17, 2023
I wonder what purpose the posters of the fedsoc board served.
"You do not have our permission to reference or quote any portion of this email in a future piece," she added.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) March 17, 2023
Needless to say, that's not how the First Amendment works.
We've gotten similar complaints about publishing images—pulled from social media—of Stanford Law School dean Jenny Martinez's classroom, which protesters covered end to end in flyers after she issued an apology to Judge Duncan.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) March 17, 2023
We received a note from Mary Cate Hickman demanding that we "anonymize the face of the student in the red hoodie" because "California is a two-party consent state, and you have no right to publish this student's identity/likeness/face without consent."
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) March 17, 2023
As we explain in our editorial: "California is a two-party consent state for the recording of oral communications, not photographs, and even that only pertains to situations in which there is a presumption of privacy."
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) March 17, 2023
There is no presumption of privacy in a law school classroom where student activists are snapping photographs and posting them to Instagram, especially in the wake of a nationally televised protest at your law school.
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) March 17, 2023
From our editorial: "What's eminently clear from the drama unfolding in Palo Alto is that while Stanford law students may be the vanguard of an anti-constitutional revolution, they don't know much about the law."
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) March 17, 2023
"Where Stanford has failed to educate them in the limits of privacy and the rights of a free press, we will endeavor to fill the void with our continuing coverage of this ugly affair."
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) March 17, 2023
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