Georgetown University Law Center professor Ilya Shapiro has resigned from his position. According to Insider, he decided to leave after the school placed him on administrative leave following remarks he made via Twitter regarding President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee.
Shapiro was investigated by Georgetown Law after facing criticism for tweeting that Biden “doesn’t fit into latest intersectionality hierarchy so we’ll get lesser black woman.” He was only one of many people who considered Biden’s pledge to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court as a sort of affirmative action tactic.
Outraged Georgetown students and faculty demanded his removal and ultimately, they got what they wanted. Shapiro was set to begin his job at the university this month after the investigation concluded but he decided to quit. He wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal about his decision.
More on Shapiro’s decision from Insider:
Georgetown Law concluded its investigation and reappointed Shapiro to his role on June 2, but he ended up quitting on Monday, he wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed announcing his resignation.
“Dean William Treanor cleared me on the technicality that I wasn’t an employee when I tweeted, but the [report’s findings] implicitly repealed Georgetown’s Speech and Expression Policy and set me up for discipline the next time I transgress progressive orthodoxy,” he wrote.
“Instead of participating in that slow-motion firing, I’m resigning.”
Following the tweet, Shapiro did apologize while under fire, calling his remarks “inartful.”
Though, following his resignation, he said the university “abandoned free speech and that its “diversicrats” created a hostile work environment for him that made his job “untenable.” Jonathan Chait from the Intelligencer noted that Shapiro’s comments, though offensive, shouldn’t warrant his termination.
“Shapiro is quitting his position on the grounds that Georgetown refuses to grant his opinions the same protection afforded to people with progressive points of view, and I have to admit he appears to be correct about that,” Chait wrote.
He has a point. It would have been wrong for Georgetown to fire him based off the tweets alone. This is just a reminder that our freedom of speech (unfortunately) includes points of view that make our eyes roll.