An incoming Georgetown Law administrator, who last week apologized for a series of now-deleted tweets about President Biden’s promise to nominate a Black woman for the Supreme Court, has been placed on administrative leave, the law school’s dean said Monday.
Ilya Shapiro, vice president and director of the Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute, was set to take over the law school’s Center for the Constitution as executive director on Tuesday. He was also hired as a senior lecturer.
“I am writing to inform you that I have placed Ilya Shapiro on administrative leave, pending an investigation into whether he violated our policies and expectations on professional conduct, non-discrimination, and anti-harassment, the results of which will inform our next steps,” William M. Treanor, dean and executive vice president of the Georgetown University Law Center, wrote in an email to the law school community. “Pending the outcome of the investigation, he will remain on leave and not be on campus. This investigation will follow the procedures established by Georgetown University.”
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Shapiro, in an email to The Washington Post, said he expects to be vindicated.
“I’m optimistic that Georgetown’s investigation will be fair, impartial, and professional, though there’s really not much to investigate,” Shapiro wrote. “And I’m confident that it will reach the only reasonable conclusion: my Tweet didn’t violate any university rule or policy, and indeed is protected by Georgetown policies on free expression.”
Shapiro’s tweets came Wednesday after the news that Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer would retire at the end of the current term. Shapiro suggested Sri Srinivasan, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and the first person of South Asian descent to lead a federal circuit court, would be Biden’s “best pick.”
“But alas doesn’t fit into the latest intersectionality hierarchy so we’ll get lesser black woman,” Shapiro wrote in a tweet.
Shapiro also said that if Biden’s pick is a Black woman, she “will always have an asterisk attached.” He asked his followers in a poll if the president’s commitment to nominating a Black female judge is racist, sexist, both or neither.
A guide to the Black female judges who are contenders to replace Justice Breyer
In a tweet Thursday, Shapiro wrote: “I apologize. I meant no offense, but it was an inartful tweet. I have taken it down.” He posted a longer statement on Friday, saying he regretted his “poor choice of words,” but called it a shame that “men and women of every race” will be excluded from the president’s nomination process.
“A person’s dignity and worth simply do not, and should not, depend on race, gender, or any other immutable characteristic,” Shapiro wrote. “While it’s important that a wide variety of perspectives and backgrounds be represented in the judiciary, so blatantly using identity politics in choosing Supreme Court justices is discrediting to a vital institution.”
Ilya Shapiro, vice president and director of the Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute, was set to take over the law school’s Center for the Constitution as executive director on Tuesday. He was also hired as a senior lecturer.
“I am writing to inform you that I have placed Ilya Shapiro on administrative leave, pending an investigation into whether he violated our policies and expectations on professional conduct, non-discrimination, and anti-harassment, the results of which will inform our next steps,” William M. Treanor, dean and executive vice president of the Georgetown University Law Center, wrote in an email to the law school community. “Pending the outcome of the investigation, he will remain on leave and not be on campus. This investigation will follow the procedures established by Georgetown University.”
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Shapiro, in an email to The Washington Post, said he expects to be vindicated.
“I’m optimistic that Georgetown’s investigation will be fair, impartial, and professional, though there’s really not much to investigate,” Shapiro wrote. “And I’m confident that it will reach the only reasonable conclusion: my Tweet didn’t violate any university rule or policy, and indeed is protected by Georgetown policies on free expression.”
Shapiro’s tweets came Wednesday after the news that Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer would retire at the end of the current term. Shapiro suggested Sri Srinivasan, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and the first person of South Asian descent to lead a federal circuit court, would be Biden’s “best pick.”
“But alas doesn’t fit into the latest intersectionality hierarchy so we’ll get lesser black woman,” Shapiro wrote in a tweet.
Shapiro also said that if Biden’s pick is a Black woman, she “will always have an asterisk attached.” He asked his followers in a poll if the president’s commitment to nominating a Black female judge is racist, sexist, both or neither.
A guide to the Black female judges who are contenders to replace Justice Breyer
In a tweet Thursday, Shapiro wrote: “I apologize. I meant no offense, but it was an inartful tweet. I have taken it down.” He posted a longer statement on Friday, saying he regretted his “poor choice of words,” but called it a shame that “men and women of every race” will be excluded from the president’s nomination process.
“A person’s dignity and worth simply do not, and should not, depend on race, gender, or any other immutable characteristic,” Shapiro wrote. “While it’s important that a wide variety of perspectives and backgrounds be represented in the judiciary, so blatantly using identity politics in choosing Supreme Court justices is discrediting to a vital institution.”
