Two days ago, a free-lance investigative journalist on X released a long thread disclosing and explaining a shocking allegation. Apparently John Roberts, Chief Justice of the United States, belongs to a judicial silent organization. But this is no ordinary silent organization. It consists entirely of judges (including one other Justice of the Supreme Court) and top-flight liberal or “equitarian” lawyers. This association creates an ideological conflict of interest for the Chief Justice. As such it casts doubt on the Court’s ability to function as the final arbiters of constitutional law.

The American Inns of Court

The American Inns of Court (AIC) take their name from the four London-based Inns of Court that date back to the Middle Ages. Every English or Welsh barrister, or trial advocate, must belong to one of these Inns:

• Gray’s Inn,

• Lincoln’s Inn,

• The Inner Temple, and

• The Middle Temple.

In addition, Northern Ireland has its own Inn of Court based in Belfast. (Apparently Scotland has no Inns of Court.) So the Inns of Court have a status equivalent to that of the American Bar Association.

The American Inns of Court are far different. They are completely voluntary, and membership is by invitation only. One of them – the Edward Bennett Williams (EBW) American Inn of Court – has recently requested that the general American Inns of Court organization strike its membership and other records from the general server farm. But that does not mean that the EBW Inn no longer meets! It does – and that their information is not even available at the general AIC site, makes them a silent organization. A silent organization is an invitation-only club that presumes to set policy for other institutions or agencies its members serve. Part of being a silent organization is to keep its membership list under very close guard.

Edward Bennett Williams, the namesake, was a founding partner of Williams and Connolly, a high-profile, elite – and Democratic – law firm.

On Thursday (March 20), X journalist Bad Kitty Unleashed released information linking Chief Justice Roberts to the EBW AIC.

John Roberts linked to EBW

This top post of the fifteen-post thread is in long form and serves as a good summary:

🔥🔥🔥Breaking exposé! FIVE anti Trump judges are involved in a secretive, INVITE ONLY club for judges and lawyers called the American Inns of Court. Even the membership and meetings are secret. But somehow the DOJ has shown up at meetings. At least since Biden had been in office.

Is hobnobbing with the DOJ in court matters acceptable? Let alone meeting in secret?

So who all is linked to this selective and secretive club? And recall all of their negative Trump rulings?

- Judge James Boasberg (President)

- Scotus Ketanji Brown Jackson (Vice President)

- Judge Amit Mehta (Secretary and a meeting held at her court.)

- Judge Beryl Howell

Justice (Professionalism Award)

-Justice John Roberts (Honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple)

Wasn’t it something else that Judge John Roberts broke ethical conduct and stuck up for his, “brother Boasberg”?

George Soros has funded a fellowship at Middle Temple where John Roberts is a master of the bench.

First let me very quickly explain how this secret society called, the American Inns of Court came about. In the UK, they have the four Inns of Court that dates back hundreds of years. One of those is called Middle Temple (see Roberts photo). Well, the US created the American version of this in recent decades. There’s a massive list of branches.

The branch many of our judges belong to is The Edward Bennett Williams (EBW) Inn of Court. It’s so secretive, they deleted most signs of this branch from their website although they still met.

Now here’s Judge Beryl Howell. She was nominated by President Judge Boasberg, and VP Ketanji Brown Jackson approved of her nomination. Boasberg claims it was her work on Jan 6 that contributed to his choosing her for the American Inns Of Court Professionalism award.

Let me show you the scant meeting info that I found which included the DOJ and Inspector General Horowitz in attendance.

1. The Edward Bennett Williams Inn of Court: BOP Custody / Current Status of BOP / Early Release & Reentry: Washington DC, 2/15/24

“Joel Sickler – invited panelist at EBW Inn of Court (February15, 2024, Washington DC). The meeting held in the District of Columbia Court of Judge Amit Mehta. In addition to panelists, approximately 150 lawyers including several Federal District Judges were also present. The panel was presented primarily with Michael Horowitz, DOJ Inspector General and Seth Eichenholtz, Deputy Assistant Attorney General – also featuring Vanessa Rojas, a returning citizen with direct and learned perspective regarding constructive reforms within the Bureau of Prisons.”

Also there was:

“Seth Rosenthal, Chief Deputy Attorney General for Office of AG District of Columbia.”

2. Mathew Bester, 3 years ago in a quote Linkdn post:

“I really enjoyed talking about the latest DOJ developments last week on a great panel.”

Matthew was reposting Brent Gurney’s Post and yes the DOJ was there:

“I want to thank my co-hosts, Erin K. of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Lisa Phelan of Morrison & Foerster LLP, Inn member G. Zachary Terwilliger of Vinson & Elkins and our guest panelists Jim Fredricks of the DOJ Antitrust Division, Tiffany Rider of Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider LLP and Matthew Bester of Accenture, for a robust and fascinating discussion of the issues.”

3. Yearly gala, I’ll review this later. But the Assistant United States Attorney at U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia replied in a comment. Was he there?

“Great job, Rebecca!”

I’ve seen lawsuits online for this secret org over recusal worries with this private club. I also saw a lawsuit that stated their secrecy is dangerous to democracy.

Sources to follow.

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1902750686145810716

Herewith the rest of the thread:

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1902754710387650887

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1902761404471673308

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1902766123294265590

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1902774532085256399

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1902777245695087090

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1902790091900326377

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1902801599233396768

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1902807205881282639

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1902813593525162096

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1902818964947996839

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1902826386093674768

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1902864761802592256

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1902871489004834898

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1903143095203750126

Bad Kitty Unleashed (BKU) shows that the EBW Inn of Court has a very sensitive membership. Organs like The Gateway Pundit make much of the affiliation of John Roberts with this organization. But BKU exposes more than that. Biden DOJ prosecutors, including ranking officers and key United States Attorneys and some of their assistants, were members.

BKU’s insights from her investigations, in order of mention, follow:

No trace of the EBW Inn of Court Inn ID 30072) remains on the American Inns of Court website. What links she has, come from the Wayback Machine or the new Archive Today service. Both feature the Officers listing for the EBW Inn of Court.

Membership in the EBW Inn of Court is by invitation only – and the invitations went out to current and former Federal prosecutors.

In 2017 one Linda Shao requested multiple recusals of Supreme Court Justices who had memberships in other American Inns of Court chapters. That list included all eight Justices then serving, except one: Justice Neil Gorsuch. That petition went to the Wayback Machine. (The Court denied review and rehearing in that case.)

Judge Beryl Howell received her invitation into the EBW Inn of Court in 2023. Judge James “Turn Those Planes Around” Boasberg, then President of the EBW Inn, issued that invitation.

Specific information on Chief Justice Roberts

Chief Justice Roberts holds the rank of Master of the Bench, the highest in American Inns of Court. He got that after London’s Middle Temple Inn of Court also conferred that title on him. The Middle Temple also has a shady affiliation with the Open Society Foundation – a George Soros organization. In fact the Middle Temple paid an “amity visit” to the U.S. Institute of Peace, known for radical leftist politics. This last archive also lists Justice Neil Gorsuch as a “Master of the Bench.”

BKU found information on three meetings of the EBW Inn. The first, dated February 15, 2024, took place in the courtroom of Judge Amit Mehta. It was a panel of the Justice Advocacy Group, that included prominent DOJ attorneys – and Michael Horowitz, the DOJ IG. (See also this second archive of a LinkedIn post with further details of that meeting.)

The second apparently took place in 2022 or late 2021, according to this archive of a LinkedIn post. The third and last meeting on BKU’s list took place in 2024, probably in May. This LinkedIn post probably tells little that one can’t already find out.

Summary

The American Inns of Court organization tracks 350 chapters, including the EBW Inn of Court. BKU concerns herself primarily with the EBW Inn, which at least includes Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Both have been members of the EBW Inn for some time – and Jackson serves as its Vice-President! Judges James Boasberg, Amit Mehta, and Beryl Howell, all of the D.C. District Court, are all members. This alone compromises the impartiality of the Supreme Court as it hears any appeal from these three judges. More troubling still are the memberships of key Biden Administration Justice Department attorneys – and the current “holdover” Inspector General.

If President Donald J. Trump wanted to “clean house” at Justice, he had a perfectly good reason. But perhaps he needs to fire IG Horowitz, in addition to all the other Inspectors General he fired.

CNAV shares the position of BKU that:

the Edward Bennett Williams Inn of Court should be disbanded. And all DC justices barred from such activities.

CNAV also believes the House Judiciary Committee should investigate this matter immediately. Already Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) has filed Articles of Impeachment against Judge Boasberg. Partly in response to that, Chief Justice Roberts publicly rebuked President Trump and his allies. Their membership in the EBW Inn of Court presents an obvious conflict of interest. More to the point, the Judiciary Committee must investigate – comprehensively – whether the national judiciary is compromised, and to what extent. Perhaps a much larger round of judicial – and Justicial – impeachments is in order.

Link to:

The article:

https://cnav.news/2025/03/22/foundation/constitution/roberts-cj-judicial-silent-organization/

Video:

Bad Kitty Unleasned thread:

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1902750686145810716

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1902754710387650887

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1902761404471673308

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1902766123294265590

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1902774532085256399

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1902777245695087090

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1902790091900326377

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1902801599233396768

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1902807205881282639

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1902813593525162096

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1902818964947996839

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1902826386093674768

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1902864761802592256

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1902871489004834898

https://x.com/pepesgrandma/status/1903143095203750126

Edward Bennet Williams American Inn of Court Wayback Machine and Archive Today capture links:

https://web.archive.org/web/20160605194243/https://inns.innsofcourt.org/inns/officers.aspx?innid=30072

https://archive.is/7tQUr

Current AIC Home Page:

https://www.innsofcourt.org/

Lawsuit demanding recusals of various Justices from a child-custody case out of California:

https://web.archive.org/web/20250319162646/https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/17/17-613/24382/20171219134413718_00000001.pdf

https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/17-613.html

Other Archive Today and Wayback Machine links to key events involving the EBW and its judicial members:

https://archive.is/T2Ko8

https://archive.is/0vnS1

https://archive.is/q6uBg

https://web.archive.org/web/20250320150619/https://online.pubhtml5.com/vgjv/vhws/#p=34

https://archive.is/cd9S0

https://archive.is/RRHc8

https://archive.is/JUOWK

https://archive.is/E8ILg

Declarations of Truth:

https://x.com/DecTruth

Declarations of Truth Locals Community:

https://declarationsoftruth.locals.com/

Conservative News and Views:

https://cnav.news/

Clixnet Media

https://clixnet.com/

The Autopen Conundrum has reached a new level since last week’s initial discovery. At issue was that President Joe Biden authorized use of an autopen to sign official documents. Or, as seems more likely, a White House official took it upon himself to use that device for that purpose. President Donald Trump, as the week ended, teased the prospect of invalidating some of Biden’s official acts. Now he has made his decision plain: he will investigate those who received last-minute pardons from Biden. He will proceed as if they never got a pardon – for as far as he’s concerned, a document bearing an autopen signature without Joe Biden so much as uttering a specific command for such signature, is not worth the paper it’s printed on.

Review of the Autopen Conundrum

CNAV broke the story of the Autopen Conundrum last week.

To review: an autopen is a mechanical device that literally moves a pen over a page to apply a signature. The Autopen Company, a subsidiary of Damilic, invented the device (as Xerox invented photocopiers and Bristol-Myers invented aspirin).

Celebrities use autopens all the time, to “sign” souvenir flyers, brochures, and other “autographed” documents. (It’s bad form to advertise a document bearing a “personal signature” and send an autopen signed document instead. But as long as that “document” is a mere souvenir, not a contract, deed, or other legal document, that’s legal.)

President Trump’s White House has strict guidelines over the use of an autopen. Never does Trump or anyone else sign anything official with it. That starts with Acts of Congress and continues to executive orders, presidential memoranda – and reprieves and pardons.

Our practice around autopen usage is far more restrictive than most previous administrations. We do not use the autopen for documents that exercise the powers of the Presidency. So, for example, we do not use the autopen for executive orders, presidential memoranda, decision memoranda, nominations, appointment orders or commissions, or bills to be signed. We do not use the autopen even for more routine purposes, such as the invitation of foreign leaders to the White House. The President personally signs all of these, in the presence of witnesses. We will occasionally use the autopen when a single document requires multiple presidential signatures, or when multiple copies of a single document require signing, but only after the President has personally signed off and only at his direction.

William Scharf, Staff Secretary to President Trump

Mr. Scharf is the one people see presenting Executive Orders to Trump to sign, before witnesses.

Biden, on the other hand, offered no meaningful guidelines. The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project developed clear evidence of autopen usage, in the form of signatures looking exactly alike. Thus far the only provably “authentic” Biden signature was on his letter dropping out of the Presidential race last year. The worst part was Biden’s apparent use of the device to sign six pardons – on the same day he was vacationing elsewhere, in front of witnesses.

Further evidence

On Friday noon (March 14), the New York Post published its summary of the written policy governing autopen use in the Trump White House. But in that same article, they described a report by a confidential source, saying one aide took upon himself the decision on use of the autopen. The Post refused to disclose this aide’s name, out of an abundance of legal caution. (Other Biden White House alumni flatly deny that any of their colleagues did any such thing.)

I feared no one as much as I feared that [aide]. To me, [he] basically was the president. No one ever questioned [him]. Period.

Nor did anyone else, because the “internal culture” in the Biden White House discouraged questioning.

Later Friday afternoon, President Trump, at a press conference, responded to the autopen scandal.

He described his own take on autopen ethics, and contrasted that with Biden’s use:

Crooked Joe Biden got us into a real mess with Russia and everything else he did, frankly. But he didn’t know about it, and he, generally speaking, signed it with autopen, so how would he know? That autopen is a big deal. I don’t know, you know? Who’s doing this?

When my people come up, Will [Scharf] and all of the people, Steve [Miller], they come up… Sir, this is an executive order, they explain it to me, and 90% of the time, I sign it. 99% of the time, I say, do it. But, they come up, and I sign it.

But, you don’t use autopen. Number one, it’s disrespectful to the office. Number two, maybe it’s not even valid because, you know, who’s getting him to sign? He had no idea what the hell he was doing. If he did, all of these bad things wouldn’t be happening.

That last paragraph recalls people challenging Biden on pardons and other documents – only to hear Biden disavow any knowledge of them.

As always, should you or any member of your [Impossible Missions] Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.

Routine disclaimer accompanying “mission orders” as heard on the television series Mission: Impossible.

The next day, The Gateway Pundit shared another post by the Oversight Project. Apparently – and contrary to CNAV’s initial impression – someone did have Biden create one additional machine signature. These signatures, now designated Autopens A and B, came to light in an analysis of the January 19 last-minute pardons.

🚨 Autopen Update 🚨

We analyzed Biden's Jan. 19, 2025 "pardons" for:

-Biden Family Members

-Anthony Fauci

-General Milley

-J6 Committee

-Gerald Lundergan

They all have the same exact Biden autopen signature.

https://x.com/OversightPR/status/1899520975156216146

Gerald “Jerry” Lundergan is a former member of the Kentucky State House of Representatives. A federal court convicted him in 2019 of making illegal campaign contributions to his daughter, who ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate. Biden pardoned him along with the others named.

🚨SECOND AUTOPEN DISCOVERED🚨

We have found that there was a second frequently used autopen signature for President Biden on pardons and commutations.

https://x.com/OversightPR/status/1900293836628238419

The Biden White House issued 51 clemency warrants in 4 years. 4,245 people received clemency during the Biden Administration.

This includes 37 of the most brutal murderers on federal death row, a person who murdered two FBI agents, people who provided military support to Iran, Dr. Fauci, General Milley, the J6 Committee, members of the Biden family, and hundreds of drug dealers. Every warrant in this group was signed with an autopen.

Here are the stats on the 51 warrants:

16 were signed with Autopen A

16 were signed with Autopen B

19 appear wet signed.

Note the subtle differences between Autopen A and B. Autopen A has a bigger space between the "p" and "h" in "Joseph" than Autopen B. There are also subtle differences in the "B" in "Biden" and how the word "Jr." is written.

Blown up images of Autopen A and Autopen B are in the next tweet.

https://x.com/OversightPR/status/1900293838838898801

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gl8yIjTXMAAvJcS?format=jpg&name=medium

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gl8yIjNWUAAQV6R?format=png&name=900x900

Last night President Trump announced his decision, on Truth Social:

The “Pardons” that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen. In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them! The necessary Pardoning Documents were not explained to, or approved by, Biden. He knew nothing about them, and the people that did may have committed a crime. Therefore, those on the Unselect Committee, who destroyed and deleted ALL evidence obtained during their two year Witch Hunt of me, and many other innocent people, should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level. The fact is, they were probably responsible for the Documents that were signed on their behalf without the knowledge or consent of the Worst President in the History of our Country, Crooked Joe Biden!

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114175908922736427

Reaction and analysis

Media reaction was, as anyone might predict, mixed. MSNBC were apoplectic, saying President Trump is exceeding his authority – and totally excusing the autopen for official documents. ABC News posted a “stub” article about Trump’s Truth, calling the story “developing.” Fox News clarified that Trump earlier said, in an Air Force One interview, that a court would have to decide.

President Donald Trump once again displays the boldness that has become the trademark of his second administration. Trump is creating controversy after controversy, knowing that the courts decide cases and controversies, but cannot set government policy. He also knows that, if no one asks, people assume that a thing is constitutional (or unconstitutional). In fact, the opposite might be the case.

Trump wants to prosecute most of those people very badly, and one can understand why. Jerry Lundergan might “skate,” but not Dr. Fauci, Gen. Milley, or especially January 6 Committee members, staff, and some witnesses.

But this controversy will necessarily settle another: what kind of personal attention is required to authenticate an official signature? As the Heritage Foundation has said: who controls an autopen, controls the related office. If MSNBC’s fanciful standard of “modern technology” holds, no one can ever again be sure of a contract signature without personally attending the signing. Contracting parties might insist that all signings take place in face-to-face or video-streamed meetings.

A signature – especially a Presidential signature – should mean something. Trump is taking a vital action to ensure that it does.

Link to:

The article:

https://cnav.news/2025/03/17/news/autopen-pardons-invalid/

Video:

Previous article:

https://cnav.news/2025/03/11/news/autopen-conundrum/

Autopen Company landing page:

https://damilic.com/autopen-products/office-signature-machines

The New York Post article about the aide usurping authority:

https://nypost.com/2025/03/14/us-news/trump-establishes-far-more-restrictive-autopen-rules-as-biden-aides-murmur-about-possible-misuse/

Video: President Trump’s press conference:

Discovery of the second autopen:

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/03/second-biden-autopen-discovered-new-analysis-second-frequently/

https://x.com/OversightPR/status/1899520975156216146

https://x.com/OversightPR/status/1900293836628238419

https://x.com/OversightPR/status/1900293838838898801

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gl8yIjTXMAAvJcS?format=jpg&name=medium

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gl8yIjNWUAAQV6R?format=png&name=900x900

https://x.com/OversightPR/status/1900293840784752699

Trump announces his intention to disregard the last-minute Biden Pardons:

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114175908922736427

Declarations of Truth:

https://x.com/DecTruth

Declarations of Truth Locals Community:

https://declarationsoftruth.locals.com/

Conservative News and Views:

https://cnav.news/

Clixnet Media

https://clixnet.com/

The elite university community has been the incubator of leftist thought in America for nearly two centuries. What began with Antionio Gramsci in the 19^th century, continued with Herbert Marcuse in the 20^th. Marcuse underpinned the Marxist revolt on elite university campuses in the 1960s. Beginning then, the American elite university ceased to be a place for rigorious, politically neutral instruction. Or perhaps instruction can never be politically neutral, when one political side stands with and for the truth and the other stands with and for lies. Either way, these universities showed ever more obvious leftist bias, in student and faculty life and even in the curriculum. Now a contemporary historian tells us that the day of reckoning has arrived.

The explosion of elite university liberal bias

Members of the Baby Boom Generation remember the campus riots of the 1960s, and especially later in the decade. The first hints of campus unrest began in 1963 – and, later that year, an assassin(s) killed President John F. Kennedy. Herbert Marcuse (Eros and Civilization) outlined Critical Theory for the dubious benefit of elite university students. Critical Theory has been, from the beginning, a Marxist theory. Broadly speaking, it states that non-communist societies are inherently evil, and the Communist Revolution must destroy them.

Sadly, the campus rioters had a middling-good excuse: the Vietnam War. That war never had the support of the people, because communism had its appeal, and empire-building did not. (In case anyone doubts the appeal of communism, remember that Eugene Roddenberry’s Star Trek franchise always depicted a communist society.) Those students didn’t object to the draft for the sake of objecting to the draft. They wanted the communists to win. This chant, at a particular riot, was typical:

Ho! Ho! Ho Chi Minh!

NLF is gonna win!

The NLF (National Liberation Front) was the political arm of the communist revolutionary movement in Vietnam, the Viet Cong.

Eventually the takeover of elite universities moved from student agitators taking over buildings – to those same students growing up and becoming new faculty hires. These tenured radicals formed the basis of elite university faculty today. Now the buildings belong to them – because they have their offices in those buildings.

From subtle to not-so-subtle leftist bias

Your editor attended Yale University from 1976 to 1980. Oddly enough, on the very day your editor was running around from line to line, signing up for everything from bank accounts to post-office boxes to in-room tabletop refrigerators – a Soviet Army Air Forces officer was setting down his stolen jet interceptor on a Japanese runway and skidding eight hundred feet past the runway’s end. But no one would hear about the daring escape of Lt. Viktor Belenko until years later. And not many would hear of him at that. Why not? Because most members of the student body would consider him a traitor to the World Communist Revolution.

Before your editor arrived, a lecturer named William Shockley had accepted an invitation to speak on the campus. He propounded an admittedly controversial idea of the genetic superiority of Caucasians, and of an “elite sperm bank” to which he proposed to contribute and to recruit others to contribute. The University revoked his invitation to speak. Instead of letting him speak and maybe taking time to hold up his eugenics ideas to ridicule, the university community deemed his message too dangerous to hear. And most of the student body agreed.

During your editor’s studies at Yale, this kind of thing happened a few more times. A “Residential College Dean” ordered a representative of the Ernesto and Julio Gallo company to leave the campus, after several leftist demonstrators crashed the wine-tasting party she was to host. The era of elite university censorship had begun.

Leftist bias today

Yesterday (March 14), Victor Davis Hansen detailed the current state of elite university life – and it is not pretty.

By the 1970s, non-profit universities had dropped pretenses that they were apolitical and non-partisan. Instead, they customarily violated the corpus of iconic civil rights legislation by weighing race, gender, and sexual orientation in biased admissions, hiring, and promotions.

That was indeed a problem. Thomas Pangle, Ph.D., a much-loved professor of political science, saw leftist faculty agitators quash his application for tenure. (He hired on at the University of Toronto – and they granted him tenure.) And anyone who cares to check, will find that graduation rates were not uniform among all admissions demographics. Ideally, every student, once admitted, should have the same likelihood of graduating as any other. This was not the case.

But today the problem is an order of magnitude worse:

Graduation ceremonies became overtly racially and ethnically segregated. The same was true for dorms and “theme houses.” So-called “safe spaces,” in the spirit of the Jim Crow South, reserved areas of campus solely for particular races. Affluent foreign students often openly protested on behalf of designated terrorist groups like Hamas. First-Amendment-protected free speech all but vanished on elite campuses. Any guest speaker who dared to critique abortion on demand, Middle East orthodoxy, biological males dominating women's sports, or diversity/equity/inclusion (DEI) dogmas was likely to be shouted down, or on occasion roughed up.

Like Riley Gaines, whom campus protesters literally held for ransom. But the censorship problem didn’t stop with summary disinvitation or other disrespect of invited guest speakers. It extends now to the suspension or expulsion of students in otherwise good standing who express similar sentiments. At Yale, the Tory Party of the Yale Political Union now owns an off-campus house. That is the only place where, today, they can count on hosting one of their own meetings. The only reason other students do not vandalize that house is that if they did, they wouldn’t be dealing with the campus police. They’d be dealing with the New Haven city police, which might not be so sympathetic. And their cases would go, not to any Committee of Standards of Student Conduct, but before an adult court.

University administrators either ignored the violence done to the Bill of Rights or quietly approved when their rowdy students were turned loose on supposed conservatives.

Elite university financial missteps

But that wasn’t all that Yale University, or any other elite university, did. The direct collaboration between the Biden administration and dedicated censorship “observatories” at Stanford University has now become an evil legend. That was bad enough – until a new administration uncovered a flagrant abuse of the taxpayers’ money:

They began gouging government agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation by grabbing anywhere from 30 to 60 percent of individual campus grants as “overhead.” Yet they usually charged most private foundation grants a far more modest 15% surcharge – as if a lax government did not object to overcharging.

Whoa! Then add this:

They pushed for a vast expansion of the student loan program, whose portfolio of federally guaranteed loans reached $1.7 trillion. But once the federal government guaranteed student loans against default, universities began jacking up their fees and tuition well above the annual rate of inflation.

The Biden administration tried several dodges to “forgive,” that is, make taxpayers assume, student loan debt. The United States Supreme Court has said no – just as it said no to any more race-based admissions policies.

Still, nothing can top the replacement of the once-canonical classical curriculum in favor of explicit indoctrination in Marxist environmental and critical race and gender theories. Nor the (temporary) discontinuance of consideration of standardized test scores or comparative grade-point averages. As Hansen pointed out, the ultimate customer of any institution of higher learning is an employer. The Ivy League and its equivalents now have a taint: employers can’t be sure that a graduate “can write or speak well.”

Then came the Fourth Arab-Israeli War and the campus reaction to that. Gentile animus against Jewish students, while your editor attended Yale, manifested itself mainly as silly stereotypes – like “Jewish American Princess.” But against that, memories of World War II were still fresh – or at least, the “Nazi trope” was still a fashionable means of anti-conservative censorship. With the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza War, now the Jews became explicit targets of the left.

The Day of Reckoning

So now, says Hansen, executive and legislative action is now pending against the elite university community. Recently President Trump shut off $400 million in grants and other funds to Columbia University. They are the worst offenders regarding tolerance of antisemitic demonstrations and even assaults, and Trump had had enough. Shortly after that announcement, Columbia suspended, expelled, and even revoked degrees from students involved in the riots of last year. (Trump is also trying to deport one Mahmoud Khalil, an antisemitic riot ringleader. Incredibly, that case is tied up in court.)

Now Mr. Hansen reports on pending legislation, or at least sentiment, to:

• Tax elite university endowments as much as 20 percent or more. (Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, introduced such a bill shortly before Trump’s inauguration.)

• Forbid universities to impose “overhead surcharges” of more than 15 percent on government grants.

• End federal support for DEI initiatives or programs on campus.

• Deport any foreign students who incite riots on campus, on any excuse.

• Compel, on pain of loss of federal funding, compliance with the spirit of Amendments I, IV, V, and VI of the U.S. Constitution.

That last would require that any student facing discipline enjoy all the protections of a criminal defendant. And also that universities shall make no rules “abridging the freedom of speech.”

Summary

The Ivy League began as a collection of seminaries and divinity schools. No one would guess that today, because elite university administrations seem to have established atheism as the official campus anti-religion. That might have remained tolerable, as long as some academic rigor rermained. Sadly, that is no longer the case.

So perhaps the best remedies for these problems at elite universities will be to decamp from them. Prospective students, employers, and even donors are doing precisely that. Victor Davis Hansen doesn’t exactly describe de jure compulsion of campus reform; that might not be constitutional. But he has described a kind of “donor’s revolt” by the present government on behalf of the American taxpayer. Perhaps the public is not ready for a debate on whether the government should ever be a patron of higher education. But it is ready to decide whether to introduce rigor and selectivity to such patronage.

Link to:

The article:

https://cnav.news/2025/03/15/editorial/talk/elite-university-leftist-bias-provokes-response/

Video:

Victor Davis Hansen’s article:

https://townhall.com/columnists/victordavishanson/2025/03/14/is-the-jig-up-for-elite-higher-education-n2653807?state=

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