Legal scholar resigns after saying that Biden’s SCOTUS nominee would be a ‘lesser black woman’

A senior law lecturer and legal scholar at Georgetown University Law School has resigned rather than be fired following an investigation into a tweet about President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court pick. 

Since February, Ilya Shapiro, 43, has been on leave from Georgetown following a tweet he sent out that said Biden’s pick for the court would be a ‘lesser black woman.’ 

On February 25, Biden announced Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was his nominee to replace Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court. Jackson was confirmed in April.

Shapiro’s full tweet from January read: ‘Objectively best pick for Biden is Sri Srinivasan, who is solid prog & v smart. Even has identity politics benefit of being first Asian (Indian) American. But alas doesn’t fit into latest intersectionality hierarchy so we’ll get lesser black woman. Thank heaven for small favors?’

Srinivasan is the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.  

Shapiro wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Monday that the dean of Georgetown, William Treanor, had previously cleared him of any wrongdoing because he sent the tweet six days before he took up his role at the school.

Treanor said in January that Shapiro’s comments were ‘appalling.’ 

Since February, Ilya Shapiro, 43, has been on leave from Georgetown following a tweet he sent out that said Biden’s pick for the court would be a ‘lesser black woman

This is the infamous tweet that Shapiro sent out in January 2022

Georgetown Law Dean William Treanor called Shapiro’s comments ‘appalling’ but later cleared the lecturer of any wrongdoing

On June 2, Treanor announced in a statement that Shapiro had been cleared. Shapiro tweeted that he would be at work in Georgetown on June 3. However on June 6, Shapiro announced his resignation.  

Shapiro wrote that despite being cleared: ‘The [Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity and Affirmative Action] implicitly repealed Georgetown’s Speech and Expression Policy and set me up for discipline the next time I transgress progressive orthodoxy.’

He added: ‘Instead of participating in that slow-motion firing, I’m resigning.’

Following his clearance of any wrongdoing, Shapiro was due to take up a role as the senior lecturer and executive director at Georgetown University’s Center for the Constitution.  

President Joe Biden and newly confirmed Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson gather for a commemoration on the South Lawn of the White House in April 2022

Shapiro issued an apology for his remarks on January 28 after deleting the original tweet

Shapiro wrote in a separate resignation letter that due to his conservative opinions on abortion and affirmative action, that it would only be a matter of time before he fell foul of the school’s progressive policies. 

He added that he felt that Georgetown’s policies are applied based on a person’s political views.

The lecturer deleted the original offending tweet and then said: ‘I apologize. I meant no offense, but it was an inartful tweet. I have taken it down.’

He added: ‘A person’s dignity and worth simply do not, and should not, depend on race, gender, or any other immutable characteristic. While it’s important that a wide variety of perspectives and backgrounds be respected in the judiciary, so blatantly using identity politics in choosing Supreme Court justices is discrediting to a vital institution.’

Shapiro wrote other tweets about President Joe Biden’s promise to nominate Black woman to the Supreme Court

Another tweet stated: ‘Because Biden said he’s only consider[ing] black women for SCOTUS, his nominee will always have an asterisk attached. Fitting that the Court takes up affirmative action next term’

Shapiro had earlier tweeted: ‘Because Biden said he’ll only consider black women for SCTOUS, his nominee will always have asterisk attached. Fitting that the Court takes up affrimative action next term.’

He later conducted a poll on his page that asked his followers: ‘Is Joe Biden racist and sexist for saying his Supreme Court nominee will be a black woman?’ The choices were: ‘Racist, Sexist, Both, Neither.’ 

Shapiro was subjected to an investigation into whether or not he violated Georgetown’s policies of ‘non-discrimination and on anti harassment.’ 

The conclusion of that investigation cleared Shapiro as he had not started in his role yet. 

Shapiro was cleared of wrongdoing because he technically hadn’t started in his role with the school yet

In his resignation letter, Shapiro made reference to this tweet from fellow Georgetown employee Professor Christine Fair

In his resignation later, Shapiro made reference to Georgetown professor Carol Christine Fair’s tweet about Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Fair tweeted during Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing: ‘Look at this chorus of entitled white men justifying a serial rapist’s arrogated entitlement. All of them deserve miserable deaths while feminists laugh as they take their last gasps. Bonus: we castrate their corpses and feed them to swine? Yes.’

Fair was not subjected to any investigation over her words. She is associate professor in the Security Studies Program within the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown. 

Shapiro wrote in his resignation letter: ‘When Prof. Fair advocated murder and castration based on race and gender, Georgetown did not initiate an investigation, but instead invoked Georgetown’s free expression policy.’

He wrote in the letter that he ‘could not again subject my family to the public attacks on my character and livelihood’ due to Georgetown’s ‘hostile work environment.’ 

Shapiro continued: ‘I won’t live this way. I have no choice but to resign.’ 

In 2009, Shapiro wrote an op-ed for CNN when President Barack Obama nominated Justice Sonya Sotomayor as his nominee the the Supreme Court. 

Shapiro wrote: ‘While Judge Sotomayor exemplifies the American Dream, she would not have even been on the short list if she were not Hispanic.’ 

The day before announcing his resignation, Shapiro said that he and wife were expecting twins

The day before Shapiro announced his resignation from Georgetown, he revealed that he and his wife, fellow lawyer Kristin Shapiro, were expecting twins. 

His wife was formerly an advisor in the Department of Justice between November 2019 and May 2022. 

Previously, Kristin Shapiro had been an assistant general counsel in the US House of Representatives, offering legal advice to members on their duties and representing the House in legal matters. 

At the time of writing, Shapiro’s profile is still active on Georgetown’s website.  

Prior to working at Georgetown, as a vice president for the Cato Institute and as a director at the Robert A. Levy Center of Constitutional Studies. 

Shapiro is the author of books such as: ‘Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America’s Highest Court’ and ‘Religious Liberties for Corporations? Hobby Lobby, the Affordable Carea Act, and the Constitution.’ 

He received his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School. Shapiro said in a 2018 Politico interview that he grew up in Canada after emigrating from the Soviet Union. 

In the interview Shapiro said that he ‘always preferred ‘life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness’ to ‘peace, order, and good government.’