2nd Trump-appointed judge publicly says she will not hire Yale clerks

Oct 9 - A federal appeals court judge on Friday said she was joining a boycott of hiring law clerks from Yale Law School proposed by a fellow appointee of former Republican President Donald Trump who said the school was plagued by "cancel culture."

U.S. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Branch of the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed her participation in the boycott proposed last week by U.S. Circuit Judge James Ho in a statement to National Review, a conservative publication.

Ho, a judge on the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a speech delivered at a Federalist Society conference in Kentucky on Sept. 29 said he would cease hiring clerks from Yale and urged other judges to do the same.

He cited incidents in which students had disrupted conservative speakers at New Haven, Connecticut-based Yale, where "cancellations and disruptions seem to occur with special frequency."

Branch told the National Review that Ho raised "legitimate concerns about the lack of free speech on law school campuses, Yale in particular," and that she would not consider students from Yale for clerkships in the future. She exempted, though, current and past students.

Branch, who did not respond to an email and call seeking comment from Reuters, is the first judge to publicly join Ho's call to boycott Yale. The school also did not respond to a request for comment.

One of Ho's 5th Circuit colleagues, U.S. Circuit Judge Jerry Smith, has called the boycott "regrettable" and said he hoped to receive more applications from Yale graduates. Smith, a Yale graduate, was appointed by former Republican President Ronald Reagan.

(NOTE: This story has been corrected to reflect that Circuit Judge Jerry Smith was appointed by former Republican President Ronald Reagan.)

Read more:

Trump-appointed judge boycotts Yale for law clerks over 'cancel culture'

Yale Law dean rebukes 'rude and insulting' students who protested speaker

Conservative judge urges U.S. judiciary to not hire Yale protesters as clerks

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