Cruz celebrates dean's suspension over incident with federal judge at Stanford

March 26, 2023

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is celebrating a victory for free speech after news that the DEI associate dean at Stanford University Law School was suspended after she told students that a federal judge invited to speak at the school had "done harm" instead of stopping them from shouting him down.

Judge Kyle Duncan was heckled by students until he was unable to continue speaking, and when he appealed to Dean Tirien Steinbach to help him regain order, she expressed her disapproval of him as well.

Hearing about the incident, Cruz wrote to Stanford challenging the school to follow its own free speech policy, which did not allow such behavior, and hold the students and Steinbach accountable.

"This disgraceful behavior is antithetical to the principles of free speech and open discourse that are essential to the mission of any credible academic institution, let alone a top-tier law school," Cruz wrote.

While Stanford said it would not punish individual students for this incident because of Steinbach's failure to lead appropriately, it did put her on leave while it decided what to do about her behavior.

Stanford is requiring all law students to attend a briefing on the school's free speech policy and said that further behavior like that in March would be disciplined, which Cruz called a "victory for sanity in this country."