Stanford Law Diversity Head Is Out After Judge’s Disrupted Talk

A Stanford Law School associate dean will leave the university in the latest fallout from a March event where protesters interrupted a speech by a conservative federal judge.

Tirien Steinbach will be leaving her role as associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion “to pursue another opportunity,” Dean Jenny Martinez said Thursday in an email to the Stanford Law School community.

Steinbach spoke at the March 9 event where Judge Kyle Duncan of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit faced off with protesters supporting LGBTQ+ rights.

One video of the event posted by the conservative Ethics & Public Policy Center shows Steinbach stepping in and speaking to the room. She told Duncan “your advocacy, your opinions from the bench, land as absolute disenfranchisement of their rights,” referring to the students. She also told Duncan he was welcome in the space.

“Although Associate Dean Steinbach intended to de-escalate the tense situation when she spoke at the March 9 event, she recognizes that the impact of her statements was not as she hoped or intended,” Martinez said in her email Thursday.

Martinez and Stanford University’s President Marc Tessier-Lavigne had apologized to Duncan in a March 11 letter, saying the disruption was “inconsistent with” school policy that allows students protest but not disrupt speakers.

In her earlier letter, Martinez also said she was concerned about “hateful and threatening messages” Steinbach received.

The law school had earlier said it would require all students to attend educational programming on free speech and staff would receive additional training about how to “ensure that university rules on disruption of events will be followed.”

At a subsequent appearance at Notre Dame, Duncan said the Stanford event was a “staged public shaming” while adding that he was “cautiously encouraged that Stanford has promised to implement some form of training for students on the virtues of civil discourse.”