Stanford’s former administrator Tirien Steinbach:
gone because she was in favor of censorship and
mob rule

Bring a gun to a knife fight: It appears that common sense and civilized behavior at Stanford Law School is finally being considered as the only proper behavior for the future and present lawyers that school is supposed to be training.

This story begins on March 9, 2023, when a mob of students and faculty at Stanford, led by Tirien Steinbach, the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion dean, shouted down U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Kyle Duncan when he tried to give a lecture about the law for the school’s chapter of the Federalist Society.

At the time the school’s response was weak and inconsistent. Though it sent a letter of apology to Duncan, it also equivocated about punishing anyone who had misbehaved. No students were expelled or suspended, and Steinbach was simply put on leave, even as university officials attempted to portray her as the victim. As I wrote then:

[Law School Dean] Martinez still appeared sympathetic to Steinbach, expressing “..concern over the hateful and threatening messages [Steinbach] has received as a result of viral online and media attention.”

Now, four months later Martinez has finally announced that Steinbach is resigning her post, though even now Martinez appeared regretful that this resignation was necessary.

In her announcement Thursday, Martinez said that the way Steinbach handled the situation was not in the best interest of free speech and admitted there is room for growth and learning in the future. “As I previously noted, tempers flared along multiple dimensions,” the dean said in her statement. “Although Associate Dean Steinbach intended to de-escalate the tense situation when she spoke at the March 9 event, she recognizes that the impact of her statements was not as she hoped or intended.”

“Both Dean Steinbach and Stanford recognize ways they could have done better in addressing the very challenging situation, including preparing for protests, ensuring university protocols are understood and helping administrators navigate tensions when they arise,” the statement added. “There are opportunities for growth and learning all around.”

There is still no word on whether the school intends to take action against any of its students who participated in the mob action. It seems likely that the school is hoping that with time the heat will die off and it will be able to make believe nothing happened at all. As I wrote in March,

We as a society always seem satisfied and willing to accept as sufficient these feel-good empty gestures. All these leftist and bankrupt institutions have to do is release insincere apologies or hold insincere events and our anger is assuaged. Even the actions in California and Texas to block these misbehaving students from law licenses is only symbolic, as it really is too distant and weak from the actual events to really make a difference.

We never seem to demand real concrete action. The closest I seen has been the decision of some judges to refuse to hire students from Yale because of that institution’s eagerness to blacklist.

Based on the continuing pressure on Stanford and its actions now, my pessimism might no longer be valid. For example, the announcement of Steinbach’s resignation today was preceded the day earlier by an article in the College Fix, demanding an update on the college’s investigation.

The College Fix reached out to Stanford Law School for comment six times over the last two weeks through email and phone calls to ask whether or not Steinbach is still employed at the school and when, if at all, her leave will be lifted.

The law school did not respond to any request for comment.

Obviously, weak apologies and empty feel-good gestures are no longer considered acceptable. Stanford’s announcement today suggests the College Fix article yesterday pressured it to finally act.

To this I say “Hurrah!” It appears that toleration of clearly uncivilized mob behavior in violation of all norms of decent society is finally vanishing. It appears increasingly that such bad behavior is going to face real consequences, if only because there are now news outlets that are going to keep the pressure on and force action to take place.

Obviously, this story is not over. The fate of the students who acted improperly still needs to be determined.

Note too that Steinbach’s resignation might partly be because of the Supreme Court decision recently ending all forms of racial discrimination by colleges. Under that ruling the school exposes itself to further liability simply by having a diversity, equity and inclusion dean. It could be the school and Steinbach factored this into the decision to resign.