Georgetown Law Drops Pro-Israel Speaker Morton Schapiro After Student Petition

Georgetown Law School students succeeded in forcing out pro-Israel commencement speaker Morton Schapiro, the former Northwestern University president. Schapiro, a Jewish academic viewed as pro-Israel, drew immediate outcry after his selection. Students and faculty labeled him a Zionist and an offensive choice.

A petition urged the administration to remove him, claiming Schapiro is not a lawyer, has no connection to Georgetown, and holds controversial Zionist opinions. Last year, Henry Louis Gates Jr., also a non-lawyer with no Georgetown ties, spoke without protests.

Schapiro presided over 28 commencements as president and dean. He wrote to campus leaders: "I have presided over 28 commencements as a president and dean, and those ceremonies are about celebrating the graduates and their supporters. I was looking forward to giving a talk about humility and gratitude, but I don’t want my presence to distract from the day’s festivities. I wish the law school graduates the best of luck in the days ahead."

The school replaced him with a Georgetown law professor who opposed campus antisemitism investigations. During Schapiro's Northwestern tenure, he criticized absolute free speech positions and backed sanctions treating speech as assault. Speech deemed microaggressive faced restrictions for harmony and inclusion.

Northwestern saw little pushback against viewpoint intolerance and purged conservative faculty. One incident involved Sociology Professor Beth Redbird's class on inequality, race, class, and gender. She invited an undocumented person and an ICE spokesperson for balance.

Student groups protested the ICE speaker. As they chanted profanities outside, the Dean of Students let them enter if they promised no disruption. They halted the class anyway, forcing the ICE official out and class cancellation. Northwestern took no action against the students.

Sophomore April Navarro opposed such invitations. "We’re not interested in having those types of conversations … We’re not engaging in those kinds of things; it legitimizes ICE’s violence, it makes Northwestern complicit in this," she said.

This year's commencement speakers include Nancy Pelosi at Notre Dame de Namur University, Jamie Raskin at American University and Goucher College, and James Talarico at Paul Quinn College. Pelosi criticized the GOP and Trump; Talarico attacked billionaires.

Schapiro supported Israel amid a narrow range of liberal speakers. His past pandering to the left now contrasts with his own cancellation.