CUNY Law Graduation Speaker is Recently-Named "Antisemite of the Year"

I accidentally posted a link a few minutes ago that I meant to post elsewhere, but you can find the basic story here.

The student in question is best-known for pulling out a lighter, lighting it, and then threatening to set someone's Israel Defense Forces shirt on fire--while he was wearing it. CUNY Law School responded with a statement denouncing antisemitism and then, remarkably, "CUNY Law dean Mary Lu Bilek withdrew the condemnation and issued a statement apologizing and stating that Kiswami 'exercised her First Amendment right to express her opinion.'" Please note, that, while that is the incident she is best-known for, it's hardly the only "highlight" of her activist career.

Comments

[DaivdBehar]

Stop talking. Mandamus the IRS Non-Profit Office to de-exempt them. Do that one time, all woke disappears.

[DaivdBehar]

Shut down Cuny Law. To deter.

[David Nieporent]

Once more: not only is that not a grammatical way of using the word "mandamus," but CUNY is a government agency, not a not-for-profit; the IRS has no role to play there.

[DaivdBehar]

Good point, David.

The City University of New York School of Law Foundation, Inc. is a tax-exempt educational organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and all contributions are tax-deductible as provided by law.
A copy of the CUNY School of Law Foundation’s latest annual report may be obtained, upon request, by writing to CUNY School of Law Foundation, 2 Court Square, Long Island City, NY 11101, or from the New York State Attorney General’s Charities Bureau, 120 Broadway, 3rd Fl., New York, NY 10271.
EIN: 11-3235349

OK. Shut down its Foundation. Message will be received.

I can use mandamus that way, the way that a diverse is now a noun and not just an adjective. It means get a court order to force the IRS to start doing its job.

[DaivdBehar]

David. No lawyer should be correcting the English of a high school grad. I read Warriner's English Grammar and Composition. I strongly suggest that book be covered in law school.

[DaivdBehar]

Bilek is a Harvard Law indoctrinated feminist and anti-Semite. She needs to resign immediately.

She is retiring early, because she identifies as a slaveholder. I identify her as an anti-Semite. She has already cancelled herself.

Zero tolerance for the vile feminists, especially the Ivy indoctrinated ones.

[Martinned]

Hang on, I thought we were opposed to public universities punishing people for their speech?

[Jerry B.]

Well, a few hundred protesters could show up and shout this guy down. That seems to be accepted behavior among the young Left.

[Dick King]

We need to hold the moral high ground.

-dk

[DaivdBehar]

Pelt her with carnitas.

[jb]

Right, so it's cool as long as people you agree with are doing it.

[David Bernstein]

(1) Threatening to set someone's shirt on fire is assault, not speech; and (2) one also is no obligated to reward someone for violent hate speech, as by giving her a speaking gig at commencement.

[Nisiiko]

Agreed on 1). 2) is the exact argument leftists use to shut out all conservative speakers on campuses.

[David Bernstein]

I would agree that if CUNY had some objective criteria for commencement speakers, like number 1 in the class by GPA, even her wishing a violent death on "Zionists" might not be enough to justify depriving her. But (1) surely she is being asked to speak because of, not despite, her activism, (2) while hate speech is in the eye of the beholder and what not, I decline to concede that mainstream conservative positions, promoted civilly, should be considered the analogue to the sorts of things she says and does, as detailed in the final link.

[Nisiiko]

Thank you for your response, professor.

I agree with you that civilly promoted conservative positions should not be considered the analogue to her filth. That said, the mainstream left decries anything and everything promoted by conservatives to be "evil" and "mean-spirited." Where is one to draw the line?

I also want to note that most American Jews are radical liberals who support the types of immigration policies that brought this parasite or her ancestors to America's shores in the first place. Because, of course, "we were all strangers in the land of Egypt" or whatever other trite nonsense they come up with.

[DaivdBehar]

Judaism does not make Jews Commies. Living in New York makes Jews Commies.

[Nisiiko]

Fake Reform Judaism sure does. They don't know the first thing about the Talmud, but they think that eating lox and schmears while protesting in support of sexual deviants makes one a Jew.

[David Bremer]

The final link doesn't work, btw. You can figure the correct target out by clicking the link, but the link does need to be fixed.

[neoteny]

The final link doesn't work. You can figure the correct target out by clicking the link, but the link does need to be fixed.

https://canarymission.org/individual/Nerdeen_Kiswani

[jb]

But there's very rarely "objective" criteria for a role such as a commencement speaker.

Isn't the general premise of so-called cancel culture that because you hold position X that for whatever reason we don't like, you shouldn't be able to do unrelated thing Y. (e.g., because you are opposed to DEI efforts, you can't talk about climate science). Now you may be right that she's being invited to speak *because* of and perhaps even *about* her activism, in which case criticizing her selection on that basis seems fine, but if she were invited to speak on some other basis there's not really a meaningful difference between cancelling her for antisemitism than cancelling conservative speakers based on their political beliefs. You may think that there's fine degrees of badness in what types of beliefs we should allow and what we shouldn't, but that seems like you're likely setting up some incredibly arbitrary distinctions even if this one feels obvious to you.

[Dick King]

Punishing people for speech is one thing. Hiring them to make a speech of their choice is another.

-dk

[Rossami]

"Credible threat" of violence is one of the accepted exceptions to the "free speech" rule. Having a lighter in hand while you threaten to burn a shirt with the person still in it is a pretty credible threat.

[santamonica811]

Absolutely might be. Or absolutely might not be . . . you and I would have to know a ton more facts. Speaker's tone, body language, relationship history between these people, etc.. (But I 100% agree with you that this is *not* one of those situations where we can automatically and immediately dismiss the words as 'Not a serious threat.')

[Noscitur a sociis]

Fortunately, Ms. Kiswani helpfully recorded herself doing it, so acquiring the necessary facts is easily done.

https://twitter.com/StopAntisemites/status/1308386850315407363

[santamonica811]

NAS,
Much thanks for the link. It was helpful to watch. She does actually ignite the lighter, and keeps the flame going, and moved it to within inches of the shirt, which all suggest a real threat. But she never makes any attempt to light it on fire, which suggests no threat. And the man wearing the shirt gives a smile and maybe even the start of a chuckle, which suggests that he did not perceive it as a real threat. But--to my eyes--it seemed like a nervous smile, which again could suggest a fair dinkum threat.

The video helps a lot, in terms of understanding the actual interaction. But doesn't get me much closer to knowing "the truth," as there are multiple reasonable interpretations on both sides, IMO. (This is a side issue from: What kind of asshole ignites a lighter and puts the flame close to the clothing of another person?)

[Noscitur a sociis]

And the man wearing the shirt gives a smile and maybe even the start of a chuckle, which suggests that he did not perceive it as a real threat.

Did you notice the part after that where she said, "No, I'm serious"? How about the fact that she captioned the video, "I almost set this guys shirt on fire"?

[santamonica811]

I did notice those. It's worth noting that her actual *actions* directly conflicted with her verbal statement that she wanted to burn the shirt. Since, well, she had immediate opportunity to put the flame to the shirt and she, instead, moved the flame farther away from the guy.

I pay almost no attention to how people caption stuff on the internet. Pure clickbait. "Movies with career-killing performances? Number 8 will shock you." NO NO NO . . . Number 8 **never** shocks me.

She still strikes me as an awful person. I'm merely pointing out that this is not one of those clear-cut situations . . . it's what we lawyers are (over?-)paid to do, after all. 🙂

[David Nieporent]

Yeah, but what about number 6?

[zztop8970]

They didn't teach the "true threats" exception to free speech at the law school you supposedly went to?

[Martinned]

O, I have no problem with this person being cancelled. But then I don't have a problem with lots of other people being cancelled either.

[zztop8970]

My comment was not about this person or any other person being cancelled. It was about someone claiming to have gone to law school making a comment that demonstrated he doesn't understand the first thing about the law.

[WuzYoungOnceToo]

He also claims to have a PhD in Economics, and that means he "knows what he's talking about".

[ReaderY]

I imagine we’ll get cases where if the universiry tries to sanction people for threatening speech, they can bring this up and claim discriminatory enforcement. The university doesn’t punish threats generally . It merely punishes threats against select people it happens not to hate.

[Cal Cetín]

Shouldn't they postpone the announcement of the winner until during the awards ceremony?

[Cal Cetín]

Some Nathan needs to call the University dean to account in this way: complain that some student threatened to set another student's Black Lives T-shirt on fire, and after the dean has gotten through threatening life in prison for the offender, say "oops, did I say a Black Lives Matter T-shirt, I meant to say an IDF T-shirt."

[Noscitur a sociis]

"Some Nathan"?

[Cal Cetín]

2 Samuel 12:1-14

[Krayt]

Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight.

Now that's a chad who DGAF.

[santamonica811]

DGAF????
chad????

What the f*ck is happening to written intercourse? I blame Twitter. And all of the internet. ("Hey! Get off my lawn, you damn kids!!!")

[Aunt Teefah]

Yes, a shirt opposing the unjustified killing of minorities and one supporting the same are completely identical. You have owned them with facts and logic.

[David Nieporent]

Bit harsh to describe BLM as supporting unjustified killings.

[Bored Lawyer]

Yes, how dare those Jews defend themselves. They should just sit there and let missiles be lobbed at them.

[Aunt Teefah]

Crazy how watered-down some of these awards have become. All you have to do to be "Antisemite of the Year" is be a loud-mouthed college student and do a few campus protests? May as well make it a participation trophy.

Meanwhile, you can't even get a nomination for "Anti-Palestinian of the Year" without actually killing multiple Palestinians. How about some parity?

[Harvey Mosley]

It really is too bad that the victim didn't beat the shit out of the assailant in self defense.

[TwelveInchPianist]

How do we get law deans that are ignorant enough to believe that trying to set someone on fire is protected expression?

[Ed Grinberg]

"CUNY Law dean Mary Lu Bilek"
A shining example of women in academia.

[Commenter_XY]

Professor Bernstein, I just want to say that I am a Canary Mission supporter. And I donate because they are doing important work. As far as I am concerned, anyone making their list guarantees they will never work for me. I won't hire them. And I check.

Are you still writing for ToI?

[IPLawyer]

Berstein really loves to wallow in childish melodrama

[Ed Grinberg]

childish melodrama

It is not a joke when people who advocate violence are accepted / promoted by mainstream society. From there, it's only a short step to actual violence being accepted.

[J. Denny]

How does a Law School say what is clearly a threat is protected first amendment speech and retain accreditation?

[SimonP]

While WOL is definitely one of those... special... pro-Palestine advocacy organizations, they at least seem to have an honest appreciation of the facts on the ground in the occupied territories. I can't say I can say the same of JNS or similar types of outlets/organizations that attack WOL and their ilk, which lie almost from the outset in any of their "reporting." Every single discussion based on these sources has to begin by untangling the misrepresentations and being clear about what's true, and what's exaggeration, and what's just a lie.

[Ed Grinberg]

And, of course, "lying" about "the ground in the occupied territories" is much worse than threatening violence!

[David Nieporent]

they at least seem to have an honest appreciation of the facts on the ground in the occupied territories.

Then why do they keep talking about "genocide," which no rational human being could think applied to that situation?

[Ed Grinberg]

All animals are equal, but some are less equal the others, so you can say (and do?) pretty much anything about (to) them.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Are you proposing that as a motto for the relevant occupied territories?

[Bored Lawyer]

Ah yes, the brown shirt shows up. Bet you support the gal who threaten to torch the guy with a shirt, don't you?

[Shamie Ervin iv]

I'd stick a bodkin in his gizzard. If it were not assize time.

[Sarcastr0]

Yeah, this person seems to be an antisemite and awful.

But I am uncomfortable with a professor with a blog platform basically going to war against a law student's reputation and future.

[Noscitur a sociis]

She seems to be trying pretty hard to promote and develop this reputation, and thus far it only seems to helping her future.

[Sarcastr0]

She can sabotage her own career all she wants - no power imbalance there.

And I don't know about her future prospects - law school student activist is a pretty low ceiling.

[zztop8970]

well so far her activism has resulted in an astonishing apology for her behavior on behalf of her dean who seems to think making criminal threats is protected by the 1A, and her selection as the graduation speaker, so as Nac says, it seems it has been helping her .

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Did the professor publish anything about the bigoted law clerk with a Federalist Society pedigree and a Court of Appeals clerkship?

[WuzYoungOnceToo]

But I am uncomfortable with a professor with a blog platform basically going to war against a law student's reputation and future.

I guess it never occurred to you that the real story here was the Dean's response.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

A young gun nut and white supremacist pushes antisemitic conspiracy theories in a written declaration accompanying a lethal rampage that kills a dozen or so innocent Americans at a grocer, and Prof. Bernstein tosses to the Volokh Conspiracy's target audience this . . . this?

Carry on, clingers. So far and so long as your betters permit.

Until replacement.

[Cal Cetín]

The way to replace the white-supremacist killer is to execute him. New York won't do it, so it's up to the feds.

Or is death an excessive punishment for multiple murders?

[Bored Lawyer]

Or any killer. It is enough for me that he shot up a supermarket and killed ten people. One trial, one appeal, and then hang him. His ideology is neither here nor there.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Why is it that so many right-wingers are anti-government cranks (who believe government is inept, immoral, unreliable, and corrupt) until the government wants to kill someone (at which point the clingers conclude that government is infallible, efficient, righteous, and moral)?

Carry on, clingers. Until replacement, at best.

[DaivdBehar]

Queenie, Antisemite of the Minute.

[Ridgeway]

Sadly, they may need to make categories in order to be able to recognize all deserving candidates.

[Nisiiko]

Muted.

[DaivdBehar]

Don't mute my Queenie. She is just the smartest thing.

[santamonica811]

Agreed. Nisliko, you're immediately #3 in my "muted" list.