UC Berkeley’s law school dean, Erwin Chemerinsky, and his wife, law professor Catherine Fisk, faced a bizarre scene this week when third-year students invited into their home for a dinner held a disruptive protest and refused to leave. The students accused Fisk of assault after she tried to pull a microphone from the hands of Malak Afaneh, leader of Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine.
Afaneh has been featured by Berkeley on its website discussing how “As a proud Muslim immigrant, a first gen, low income student, and a survivor, I know exactly what it feels like to not have anyone in your corner.” She added:
“As leaders at Berkeley Law, we have the privilege of being in spaces where we can gain access surrounding the U.S. legal system, information that is gatekept and withheld from the very communities that often need it the most.”
It appears that one of those privileged spaces was the Dean’s home. Chemerinsky was warned that protests might be held at his home. Moreover, flyers appeared around campus opposing the dinners.
Chemerinsky discussed this threat in a statement to the school:
“The students responsible for this had the leaders of our student government tell me that if we did not cancel the dinners, they would protest at them. I was sad to hear this, but made clear that we would not be intimidated and that the dinners would go forward for those who wanted to attend. I said that I assumed that any protest would not be disruptive.”
The Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine depicted Dean Chemerinsky in a cartoon with a bloody knife and fork, which were denounced as anti-Semitic and raised images of the ancient blood libel against Jews.
Others attacks Chemerinsky as effectively a Zionist operative.
Once at the dinner, Afaneh and others began their protest. She started by saying “as-salamu alaykum” — or peace and blessings to you — when Fisk took hold of her and tried to take away her microphone.
Fisk teaches civil rights and civil liberties at Berkeley.
An Instagram post by the two student groups said that Fisk was guilty of “violently assaulting” Afaneh. In the video, there is physical contact but it is not violent. It is reminiscent of the recent controversy involving Tulane Professor and former CNN CEO Walter Issacson who was accused of assault in pushing a disruptive protester out of an event.
There are already petitions to seek punishment for the “assault.” One petition states:
“On the last day of Ramadan, UC Berkeley Law Professor Catherine Fisk, and Dean Chemerinsky’s wife, assaulted a Palestinian Muslim hijabi law student that was exercising her First Amendment rights to draw attention to UC complicity in the genocide of the Palestinian people. Fisk and Chemerinsky would rather resort to violently assaulting one of their students than face the truth of their support for genocide.”
The suggestion is that you have a First Amendment right to enter a private residence, stage a loud protest, refuse to leave, and prevent others from associating.
Technically there was physical contact but no police complaint has been filed. Even under torts, there is a notion of molliter manus imposuit or “he gently laid hands upon.” The doctrine is used as a defense for using limited, reasonable force to keep the peace or respond to trespass to land or chattel.
Both Fisk and Chemerinsky can be heard saying that this is their home and that the protest must stop. Evently Afaneh and ten other students left the dinner.
In a statement Wednesday, Chemerinsky wrote that
“The dinner, which was meant to celebrate graduating students, was obviously disrupted and disturbed. . I am enormously sad that we have students who are so rude as to come into my home, in my backyard, and use this social occasion for their political agenda.”
The problem is that these students have been told for years that deplatforming and disrupting events are forms of free speech. This has been an issue of contention with some academics who believe that free speech includes the right to silence others. Student newspapers have declared opposing speech to be outside of the protections of free speech. Academics and deans have said that there is no free speech protection for offensive or “disingenuous” speech. CUNY Law Dean Mary Lu Bilek showed how far this trend has gone. When conservative law professor Josh Blackman was stopped from speaking about “the importance of free speech,” Bilek insisted that disrupting the speech on free speech was free speech. (Bilek later cancelled herself and resigned after she made a single analogy to acting like a “slaveholder” as a self-criticism for failing to achieve equity and reparations for black faculty and students).
Berkeley has lost cases in court over its failure to protect free speech.
Many faculty and deans remained quiet for years as conservatives, libertarians, and dissenters were cancelled on campus or deplatformed. It is only recently that some have become openly alarmed over the anti-free speech movement that they have fostered either directly or through their silence.
In this case, the students felt justified to stop a dinner event in a private home. They also showed little fear that they would face any repercussions for their actions.
Ironically, I raise this very hypothetical in my torts classes each year. I also invite my students to my house for dinners. When we get to trespass, I present the hypothetical of what would occur if some of them refused to leave and what my options might be. The Chemerinsky home just became that very hypothetical.
For many of us, the lack of civility and respect by the students is disturbing but hardly surprising. There are many students who feel enabled for years by administrators and faculty at schools like Berkeley.
Dean Chemerinsky can be criticized for fueling this rage by denouncing conservative justices as “partisan hacks” simply because he disagrees with their jurisprudential views. Nevertheless, Chemerinsky has had a long and widely respected career as a scholar and administrator.
Clearly, neither Chemerinsky nor Professor Fisk deserved this disruption or the lack of respect. They refused to yield to the threats over this dinner and I respect them for that. Chemerinsky has tried to navigate the tensions on campus while supporting free speech rights. Chemerinsky and Fisk open their home to hold these dinners and most students clearly value and respect their gracious hospitality.
I also would not fault the Dean for declining to pursue discipline over the incident since this occurred in a private residence. However, I take a harsher view of disruptions of classes and public events. The protesters can demonstrate outside of a room or a hall to express their opposition to a speaker. What they cannot do is prevent others from speaking or hearing opposing views. Those responsible for such disruptions should be suspended or, for repeat offenders, expelled.
Regrettably, the scene that unfolded at the home of Dean Chemerinsky will be viewed by many as a triumph rather than an embarrassment for their cause. Disruption has become the touchstone of protests in higher education. At the same time, schools like UCLA have paid “activists-in-residence” or now bestow degrees in activism.
We now have a culture of disruption that has been consistently fostered by academics and administrators on our campuses. When asked “why the home of a dean?,” these students would likely shrug and answer “why not?”
In that sense, this is the ultimate example of the chickens literally coming home to roost. These students have been enabled for years into believing that such acts of disruption are commendable and that others must yield in the cancellation of events. For weeks, they demanded that these dinners be halted despite other students wanting to attend. In that sense, the appearance in an actual home is alarming, but hardly unexpected in our current environment.
For students such as Afaneh, it is just part of “the privilege of being in spaces” to continue one’s activism.
The Muslim law student in this article is just another war-like Muslim who wont be happy until Jews and Christians are eliminated from the planet, just as Muslims teach. Muslims recently in Dearborn called for the death of all Americans. They are consistent in their blood lust.
People in Gaza have supported Hamas for over a decade and they hate Jews. If they havent fled Gaza by now, then its on them if they die. If Israel accepts the terms of cease fire of Hamas, all that will happen is that Hamas will refortify and try yet one more time to kill all Israeli Jews. Its in their DNA. Napalm all of Gaza. Israel could give them 48 hours notice then let it rip.
As a Hispanic who’s ancestors date back to Spain, I have Arab genetics precisely because the Moors occupied Spain for hundreds of years. Then Catholics pushed them out with the Crusades.
I wrote the following last year re: Muslims in Gaza today crying about Jews being occupiers. History would address these fake arguments.
Estovir says: November 4, 2023 at 10:48 AM
Jerusalem was indeed conquered by Muslims in the 7th century AD, seizing it from Christians and Jews by blood thirst.
The history of Muslims beginning with Mohammad, the founder of Islam, is spilling the blood of Christians and Jews in lands where the latter were already established. Istanbul, Turkey, was Constantinople before Muslims invaded and slaughtered inhabitants of the Byzantine Empire. The Hagia Sophia was a Christian (Eastern Orthodox) Basilica until Muslims destroyed it and named it a mosque.
Jerusalem belongs to the Jews. The entire region belongs to them predating both Christianity and Islam. The historical facts are with the Jews.
“After the bitter battles they had endured with the Persians, in which hundreds of lives were lost, the Christians of Jerusalem felt that they had earned possession of the Holy City with their life’s blood. But less than ten years after the battles between Byzantium and Persia at last came to an end, Caliph Umar’s armies arrived at the gates of Jerusalem. They had already subjugated much of the country, and victory over the Holy City therefore seemed assured. Patriarch Heraklios fled the country, taking the True Cross from Jerusalem with him.
When at last the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Sophronius of Jerusalem was forced to surrender in 638 A.D., Umar is believed to have traveled to Jerusalem personally in order to receive the surrender. Umar had become the second caliph following the death of Abu Bakr, making him one of the earliest successors of Mohammed himself.”
https://www.gojerusalem.com/article/260/Islamic-Conquest-of-Jerusalem/
No good deed goes unpunished.
Love it. These people eventually eat their own.
I hope Erwin Chemerinsky and his wife read these comments. Maybe when they see that, the overwhelming response is, “They asked for it, and they had it coming!” – maybe that will give them pause. I would like nothing more than to see them both wake up, and become based. Of course, they would lose all their friends there in lala land, and probably have to move to Texas or Florida. But that would not be all that bad. Old dogs can learn new tricks, and so can old humans, although the dogs do it better.
It appears that the 3rd year law class needs an assignment. A well-cited paper discussing how the First Amendment does or does not apply in a private residence.
“These students have been enabled for years into believing that such acts of disruption are commendable and that others must yield in the cancellation of events.” (JT)
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.” (Martin Niemöller)
He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind; And the foolish shall be servant to the wise of heart. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; And he that is wise winneth souls. – Proverbs 11:29-30
A culture of disruption indeed Jonathan. The tail is now wagging the dog in American colleges and universities.
Turley is too nice to Chem. and his wife. They deserve it as they have created the environment for it. Chem. as dean tolerated all disruptive behavior aimed against conservative and libertarian speakers, reasoning that violating someone’s free speech rights is also the exercise of free speech. If you don’t set boundaries, it get’s out of hand.
From disrupting speakers, we now have arrived at harassment of dean and faculty member in their own home. Again, there are no consequences. Chem. states he would not file charges or take punitive actions as administrator because it took place in his private home. That is a non-sensical argument. Chem. and his wife hosted the dinner in his capacity of dean for students of Berkeley. So, there is a direct relationship to the law school justifying punishment such as suspension and expulsion. That it happened in his private home makes it actually worse. Doing nothing will only lead to further escalation. As a constitutional scholar, Chem. must also be ashamed that his 3rd year students claim that protesting in someone’s private home is protected by the 1st Amendment – so much for the quality of a Berkeley Law degree.
Do I feel sorry for Chem. and Fisk? Not really. They are at the root cause themselves. The lack of consequences demonstrate they still have not learned their lesson.
Doubledutch: “Do I feel sorry for Chem. and Fisk? Not really.”
+++
Then feel sorry for civilization.
@DD,
You do realize that Turley is a card carrying liberal, right?
-G
STUDENTS: Here is your Cliff’s Notes/First Amendment in a Nutshell lesson for today,–in just three sentences from the good Professor Turley:
(1) “The problem is that these students have been told for years that deplatforming and disrupting events are forms of free speech.”
(2) “Many faculty and deans remained quiet for years as conservatives, libertarians, and dissenters were cancelled on campus or deplatformed.”
(2) “We now have a culture of disruption that has been consistently fostered by academics and administrators on our campuses.”
Tomorrow’s lesson: Truth or Consequences.
(Make that, Truth and Consequences.)
Lin,
Good summary!
Yeah, but what is sentence #3? And doesn’t the 3rd amendment apply to this occupation by a Palestinian vanguard?
My favorite part in every horror movie is when the monster turns on its creator. Welcome to your movie, Dean!
It’s me!
I would be more inclined to support the homeowners if they supported free speech for everyone else. What goes around, comes around!
After a few more hours of sleep, I am returned! So here is what I wish had happened. I wish the pack pro-Palestine nadmenny droogs, had done a bit of the old beaty-weaty on the yahoody sophistos, and went all Nazi-wazi on the house.
That means smack the couple around some, and paint swastikas on the walls, in my attempt at Nadsat, or Clockwork Orange-speak.
I say that not out of any malice, but as a method of scientific inquiry. I am curious what it would take for Chemerinsky, or maybe his zheena, to actually realize that he (they) helped create these young fascists. What would it take for those two to become Republicans, and renounce the Democrat Party, and their own Leftist/Prog Ideology? Is there anything that would accomplish that? Or, are they like Vampires, who look into a mirror, and see nothing?
Floyd,
Glad you had a nap.
Give it some time, and things just might elevate to the point where that kind of thing you describe comes to pass.
As others have noted, they are beginning to eat their own.
This very well could become a very dangerous time for our country.
Invest in chickens, PMs, ammo and you own personal well being.
Chemerinsky and Fisk are darn lucky the young Nazis didn’t go all October 7th on them! What better place to do that then in Berkeley, where the prosecutors are sooo tolerant and open-minded! It’s going to happen here sooner or later. When you have a group that is not afraid to die, they can really screw things up.
@Floyd
You have Dearborn/Detroid MI, which means Chicago is a target.
You have Minneapolis MN, again means Chicago is a potential target.
Its a question of when.
Since Comey, Barr, Wray have f’d up FISA, we’re going to lose a crucial tool.
(With great power comes great responsibility… or the abuse of the system)
Chicago, NYC, Cleveland, all easy Dem controlled cities with a high Jewish population.
That’s something you need to think about.
-G
I think it is wonderful. The Dean is a hard core leftist who often aligns himself with anti American, anti-Constitution, and typically anti-Semitic radicals. He deserves the same treatment or worse that his fellow travelers give to Conservatives. He typifies the classic Progressive American Jewish Academic who will remain loyal to the cause up until the minute they come dispatch him to the next world. I have no doubt of that.
I have to agree with you. I wonder if the Dean is educable?
He will be screaming “But I’m on Your Side!” as they haul him out of his house.
As I recall from college classes back in the 1970s (so, back when a professor’s personal ideological views didn’t significantly impact what was being taught to their students), one of the disputes (violent) between the National Socialists in Germany and the Communist Party in the Soviet era (the latter of which had had its own ideological split) wasn’t ‘right wing’ vs. ‘left wing’, but the *degree* of socialism – ideological purity, in effect. A professor put it this way – and I’ve never forgotten it – “If you assign, on a scale of 0 to 10, the ideology of the National Socialists and the Communists, Communism is a “10”… and National Socialism was a “7 or 8” – and that’s one reason why, ultimately, the two came into conflict.
Stated for mass audiences in the United States, I’ll call attention to a stand-up skit done by the comedian “Emo Philips” that comedically illustrates this phenomenon with respect – in that case — to religious beliefs. YouTube has several versions of his 1987 routine. Search on “Emo Phillips Baptist Joke.”
Maybe at their next dinner the raghead students association will give the Chems a lesson in sharia law and mete out justice for the assault by slicing off her breasts with a scimitar and recording it on video.
Anderson Cooper will call it a mostly peaceful protest and Kommielala will say these protests should continue, they must continue! Then Dean Chem can write another letter defending the right to such “speech”.
After meeting the character of Hannibal Chollop in Dicken’s Martin Chuzzlewit, I say we need more Hannibal Chollops to deal with the sort of persons who are now disrupting and harming American citizens. It seems that in the Ante Bellum West of America they knew exactly how to deal with newcomers who wanted to disrupt the American citizen in his nation of birth. They cherished the new nation, many of them were veterans of both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 and would ensure that nothing would interfere with the growing nation. Tar and feathers, Bowie knives, guns of many sorts, clubs and axes could and would be used to deter individuals intent on disrupting the peace. We are currently approaching the status of the “Wild West” in its anarchic beginnings. Where is Marshall Dillon when you need him?
I love this. How anyone could be so stupid as to invite these people into their home? This could only occur in an institution of higher learning. You never invite evil into your house.
Did the professor think that he was some sort of untouchable.
Has he not read history and noted how especially left wing revolutions turn on themselves and start to eat each other. One can never be pure enough once the revolution gets going.
The same also happens in religions, on occasion. One example is Islam, where there was a schism within 2-3 generations of its founding. In Christianity there were also many schisms early on and some still survive. Early in Ancient Israel the Kingdom split into Israel and Judah.
I think the best answer is to wall off California and keep most of them there and then gradually work on weeding out their acolytes from the rest of the country. It’s the only way to be sure.
Lastly maybe a PhD or LLD should be a disqualifying stigma on the CV of applicants, from California
My guess is that most faculty of most of our prog/left universities live in a constant state of delusion about the real world.
Those who cannot do civil liberties teach civil liberties. The irony. Har.
It appears one parasite is eating another, let’s hope the host takes care of its health, soon.
Any wonder why these values were removed from Holy Land?
“. . . third-year students invited into their home for a dinner held a disruptive protest and refused to leave.” (JT)
I’d feel sorry for those Leftists, if it weren’t for the fact that they hatched those creatures.