Incoming Georgetown Law director on leave after tweets about Biden's Supreme Court plan
Ilya Shapiro is seen here from a segment on CNN.
The incoming executive director for Georgetown University's Center for the Constitution has been placed on administrative leave after social media comments made last week questioning President Joe Biden's intentions for the US Supreme Court vacancy.
Biden last week confirmed that he would make good a campaign promise and nominate a Black woman to replace Justice Stephen Breyer, who announced his retirement last week. There has never been a Black woman on the country's highest court.
Ilya
Shapiro, who was to take up his position at Georgetown Law on February
1, tweeted on Wednesday: "(o)bjectively best pick for Biden is Sri
Srinivasan," a judge on the US Court of Appeals in the District of
Columbia Circuit. Shapiro also described Srinivasan as progressive and
smart.
"Even
has identity politics benefit of being first Asian (Indian) American,"
Shapiro wrote. "But alas doesn't fit into latest intersectionality
hierarchy so we'll get lesser black woman. Thank heaven for small
favors?"
Those tweets have since been deleted.
Two days later, Shapiro took to Twitter to apologize.
"I
regret my poor choice of words, which undermined my message that nobody
should be discriminated against for his or her skin color," Shapiro
wrote.
"A
person's dignity and worth simply do not, and should not, depend on
race, gender or any other immutable characteristic," he said. "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."
Shapiro went on to say that he considered Srinivasan to be "the most qualified nominee a Democratic president could choose."
"Reasonable
people can disagree on that particular assessment, but it's a shame
that he and other men and women of every race are excluded from the
outset of the selection process," he tweeted.
Georgetown
Law Dean Bill Treanor said, "Ilya Shapiro's tweets are antithetical to
the work that we do here every day to build inclusion, belonging and
respect for diversity," in a statement released Monday.
The
university has launched an investigation into whether Shapiro violated
their "policies and expectations on professional conduct,
non-discrimination and anti-harassment," Treanor said.
Georgetown's Black Law Student Association is calling for Shapiro's employment to be permanently revoked.
"Our
concern and frustration is not rooted in Shapiro's opinion that someone
else is more qualified for the position," the association wrote in a
statement. "Instead, our anger stems from Shapiro's suggestion that any
Black woman, regardless of their qualifications, would be a 'lesser'
choice for the courts."
Shapiro
on Monday tweeted that he is confident the investigation "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."
"Accordingly, I expect to be vindicated and look forward to joining my new colleagues in short order," he wrote.
Shapiro told CNN he has no further comment at this time.
Shapiro
was announced as Georgetown Law's new executive director and senior
lecturer on January 21, according to the institution's website.
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