Yale Law Cancels 31 Classes so Students Can Protest Kavanaugh

Yale Law School canceled 31 classes this week so that students would have a better opportunity to protest Brett Kavanaugh.

Professors at Yale Law School canceled 31 classes on Monday so that students would be better able to protest Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court.

A report from the Washington Free Beacon detailed some of the cancellations. James Forman, a criminal law professor, canceled classes after hearing that some students were traveling to Washington D.C. to protest Kavanaugh.

This is what faculty support for, and solidarity with, student organizing looks like. Thank you, @JFormanJr. pic.twitter.com/dyt95yZAIF

— Dana Bolger (@danabolger) September 21, 2018

On Monday, Yale Law School students gathered in a campus building wearing only black to demand a full investigation into the accusations. Many of the students were able to participate in the sit-in demonstration because their classes had been canceled.

Yale professor Nicholas Christakis, who was at the center of the Halloween costume controversy at the university, criticized the student protesters on Twitter. “For civil disobedience to be praiseworthy and serious, protestors must be willing to bear the costs of the then-extant sanctions. Cancelling class so that students can protest, and doing so only for one end of political spectrum, seems hard to defend,” Christakis tweeted.

For civil disobedience to be praiseworthy and serious, protestors must be willing to bear the costs of the then-extant sanctions. Cancelling class so that students can protest, and doing so only for one end of political spectrum, seems hard to defend. https://t.co/Ya9P2lqIW6

— Nicholas A. Christakis (@NAChristakis) September 25, 2018

Nearly 50 Yale Law School faculty have signed a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee demanding a full investigation into the accusations against Kavanaugh.

“With so much at stake for the Supreme Court and the nation, we are concerned about a rush to judgment that threatens both the integrity of the process and the public’s confidence in the Court,” the letter said. “Some questions are so fundamental to judicial integrity that the Senate cannot rush past them without undermining the public’s confidence in the Court. This is particularly so for an appointment that will yield a deciding vote on women’s rights and myriad other questions of immense consequence in American lives.”