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Yesterday, law professor Ilya Shapiro was scheduled to speak at an event hosted by the UC Hastings College of Law in San Francisco. Instead of a debate on the replacement for Justice Breyer between Shapiro and a UC Hastings professor, student protesters chanted and shouted down Shapiro with a series of chants.

Shapiro was met at the venue by a crowd of activists affiliated with the school’s Black Law Students Association (BLSA). The event began quietly, with opening remarks by the president of the school’s Federalist Society. When Shapiro took the lectern, the activists — dressed in all black and carrying signs denouncing Shapiro and the school administration — erupted into loud chants of “black lawyers matter” and pounded the table to drown him out.

Shapiro’s repeated attempts to speak were silenced by yells from the assembled students, who unleashed a stream of profanity and insults as he stood silently at the front of the room. (“When did you start balding? Are you sad that you’re balding? I would be,” one said mockingly to laughter from the audience. “You’re a f***ing coward!” another yelled). Multiple student activists physically confronted Shapiro; one moved to block his access to the lectern and later began clapping in his face as students chanted, “Say it to her face, coward.”

Shapiro left the room to speak to the organizers and while he was gone an academic dean asked the students to respect the school’s code of conduct which prohibits shouting down speakers.

Shapiro tried to patiently wait the students out and listened to their statements and their personal insults until the energy in the room died down. But whenever he tried again to speak the crowd just shouted over him and pounded on desks to drown him out. After about 45 minutes of this, Shapiro finally left. When the dean announced the event was concluded one of the student protesters shouted, “Don’t let it happen again because that’ll be a shut down too.”

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The school sent an email to students this morning reminding them that the heckler’s veto is a violation of the code of conduct.

Disrupting an event to prevent a speaker from being heard is a violation of our policies and norms, including the Code of Student Conduct and Discipline, Section 107 (“Harmful Acts and Disturbances”), which the College will—indeed, must—enforce. At the same time, we will continue our efforts to ensure that we equip all community members with the knowledge and skills to engage respectfully, thoughtfully, and sensitively with each other and with a wide array of theories, identities, political viewpoints, and perspectives. This project will be informed by our continued elaboration of principles of community, inclusion, academic freedom, and free inquiry.

Given that the school warned students during the event that this was the case, will the school follow through and actually discipline anyone involved in this incident? Don’t hold your breath. No one at UC Hastings wants the cancel mob to turn on them next.

Ilya Shapiro was hired by Georgetown Law and then suspended over a tweet criticizing Biden’s decision to select a black female replacement for Justice Breyer. Shapiro apologized for the tweet but black law students at Georgetown held a sit in and demanded he be fired. During that meeting students demanded a place to cry and asked for “reparations” in the form of free meals and being excused from classes so they could protest.

The cancel culture trope of silencing your opponents also played out online where students who defended Shapiro were kicked out of a group chat set up for all students graduating in 2023. One of the students who was kicked out decided silence was his best option. “I’m going to keep my mouth shut. I’m on a scholarship. I don’t want to get kicked out, you know?” he said.

Here’s video of the entire fiasco.

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