By Nate Raymond and Karen Sloan
(Reuters) – A group of 13 conservative U.S. federal judges said on Monday they would not hire Columbia University law students or undergraduates in response to its handling of pro-Palestinian protests .
The judges, all appointed by the former US government President Donald Trumpcalled the Manhattan campus an “incubator of bigotry” in a letter Monday to Columbia President Minouche Shafik and Law Dean Gillian Lester.
“Faculty and administrators are on the front lines of campus disruptions, encouraging the virulent spread of anti-Semitism and intolerance,” the letter said.
Spokespeople for Columbia University and Columbia Law School did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Columbia canceled its main graduation ceremony Monday due to ongoing protests.
Federal judges hire law graduates each year for year-long internships that can lead to prestigious, high-paying legal jobs. The boycott will apply to students entering Columbia this fall, the justices wrote.
The letter called for “serious consequences” for students and faculty who participated in campus disruptions and compliance with free speech rules.
Protests against the war in Gaza have spread to dozens of American universities. Protesters maintained an encampment on Columbia’s main campus for weeks before some temporarily occupied a campus building last week. New York police cleared the building and arrested more than 100 people.
The judges who signed Monday’s letter were all appointed by Trump, who praised the New York Police Department’s response to the protesters, calling them “rabid lunatics and Hamas sympathizers.”
Two-thirds of the signatories are based in Texas, including Matthew Kacsmaryk, who gained national attention last year by suspending approval of the abortion pill mifepristone in a case now before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Two of the lead signatories, U.S. Circuit Judges James Ho of the 5th Circuit and Elizabeth Branch of the 11th Circuit, previously announced boycotts by Yale and Stanford employees, citing disruptions from conservative speakers on campus.
The 13 judges boycotting Colombia represent only a small part of the country’s approximately 900 federal judges.
(Reporting by Karen Sloan; editing by David Bario and Deepa Babington)
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