Georgetown University has decided to place conservative legal scholar Ilya Shapiro on administrative leave. He is currently under investigation for what he referred to as an “inartful tweet.”
Shapiro, who is the vice president and director of the Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies and publisher of the Cato Supreme Court Review, came under fire after suggesting that President Joe Biden should consider all people when selecting a justice for the Supreme Court instead of creating a separate category for black women.
His now-deleted tweet read: “Objectively best pick for Biden is Sri Srinivasan, who is solid prog & v smart. Even has identity politics benefit of being first Asian (Indian) American. But alas doesn’t fit into latest intersectionality hierarchy so we’ll get lesser black woman. Thank heaven for small favors?”
What ignited the fire of his academic self-immolation was not his opinion on its own, but rather the phrase “lesser black woman,” which by itself could have been interpreted as meaning black women are less. That would have been very problematic, but for anyone who read the tweet, they know it has been purposefully weaponized to prevent him from becoming the executive director of Georgetown’s Center for the Constitution.
After that, Shapiro posted his first apology, replying to Georgetown law professor Anderson Francois, who asked for further clarification of what he meant to express.
Still, apologizing for the phrasing was not enough, and many demanded that he be fired since they believed the message itself revealed his hatred. The Georgetown Black Law Students Association, for example, labeled the tweet “offensive, racist, sexist, and misogynistic,” and demanded his firing.
What will happen next? Who knows, but from what it seems, many liberals and conservatives alike are coming to his defense, and Shapiro hasn’t lost hope:
Statement on my starting @GeorgetownLaw tomorrow but immediately being placed on paid nonpunitive administrative leave pending investigation of my tweets: pic.twitter.com/u9xdNQY6aO
— Ilya Shapiro (@ishapiro) January 31, 2022