NYU Law administrators restored an Oct. 7 panel featuring a pro-Israeli activist after a free speech organization criticized them for preemptively moving the event off campus due to “security reasons.”
The event, hosted by conservative student group the Federalist Society, got a green light from NYU Law Dean Troy McKenzie on Wednesday — around seven hours after the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression criticized the NYU School of Law for “censorship.” FIRE’s statement denounced NYU for only platforming “some views” by postponing the event, which featured a discussion with Zionist activist Ilya Shapiro about his book that criticized “institutional weakness” in response to pro-Palestinian encampments.
“As an alternative to rescheduling the event featuring Mr. Shapiro — who has spoken here on previous occasions — the law school asked the university if it could accommodate the event on Oct. 7,” NYU Law spokesperson Michael Orey told WSN in a statement. “We are pleased and appreciative that the university is able to do so.”
The Federalist Society announced in a Friday X post that the event, now titled “Campus Free Speech After October 7,” will take place on campus and be available via live-stream at 1 p.m. The panel will feature Shapiro, as well as appellate judge Lisa Branch, district judge Roy Altman and FIRE senior fellow Nadine Strossen.
In early September, student organizers agreed to move the event to a “disruption-free” spot on campus at the request of Penelope Fernandes, NYU Law’s director of institutional events. However, one week later, when administrators furthered that the event would either need to move off-campus or to a different day, students agreed to relocate because they wanted to hold the panel Oct. 7.
A week after the second relocation, Mckenzie met with members of the Federalist Society. He reportedly told the students that the cancellation was part of a pause on all outside speakers that week, which was later refuted by a statement from Orey to The Washington Free Beacon.
“There are a limited number of events that we have the capacity to support responsibly, particularly during periods of heavy demand or other constraints on staffing or space,” Orey told the openly conservative news outlet.
NYU Law is slated to hold at least 29 events throughout the week of Oct. 7, including an Oct. 8 discussion — also hosted by the Federalist Society — regarding President Donald Trump’s executive order to deny birthright citizenship for children born to undocumented immigrants or temporary visa holders.
Shapiro previously spoke at NYU Law in 2022, when he discussed his experience stepping down as a Georgetown Law lecturer for posting a series of Tweets criticizing Former President Joe Biden for implementing diversity initiatives in his Supreme Court candidate selection process. His latest book, “Lawless: The Miseducation of American Elites,” discusses the incident in a broader criticism of what he calls an “illiberal takeover of legal education.”
Contact Kaitlyn Sze Tu at [email protected].