It’s not just Trump: Federal judges are also targeting universities

My new essay for The Hill explains how 13 federal judges prefigured Trump’s attack on higher education almost a year before Trump, violating multiple provisions of the Code of Judicial Conduct, while their colleagues have been unwilling to do anything about it.

Here is the gist:

It’s not just Trump: Federal judges are also targeting universities  

President Trump’s assault on higher education is unprecedented in scope and impact, but not unprecedented in concept. A group of 13 federal trial and appellate judges beat him to the punch by almost a year.

Trump has used the extraordinary powers of the executive branch to freeze billions of dollars of funding for seven leading universities, demanding changes in their curricula and administration. The judges were more selective, targeting only Columbia University, while foreshadowing the same educational intrusion that Trump later deployed with a vengeance.  

On May 6, 2024, the judges sent a boycott letter to Columbia’s then-president, calling the university “ground zero for the explosion of student disruptions, antisemitism and hatred for diverse viewpoints,” where “disruptors have threatened violence, committed assaults and destroyed property.”

On Mar. 7, the Trump administration announced, using strikingly similar language, the cancellation of approximately $400 million in federal grants and contracts due to Columbia’s “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students,” including the failure “to stop radical protestors from taking over buildings on campus.”

Trump is a wrecking ball, with no regard for norms, conventions or past practices. We expect judges to be more judicious. We especially expect them to comply with the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, which prohibits leveraging clerkship appointments for extra-judicial objectives.

Trump surely did not need the example of a judicial boycott to embark on his campaign to remake higher education in his own image. Federal judges, on the other hand, should be embarrassed by their participation and endorsement of such proto-Trumpian tactics. 

You can read the entire essay at The Hill.