When Stanford Law School students shut down a Federalist Society chapter event with a conservative federal appeals judge, aided by a diversity, equity and inclusion dean, and circulated a "headshots" poster identifying chapter board members, the school did not punish deplatformers and censored the event video so they couldn't be identified.

Though the law school suspended DEI dean Tirien Steinbach, who left months later, and the university pledged to add free speech and academic freedom to admissions, student orientation and staff training, the damage had been done: Federal appeals judges blacklisted Stanford Law students from clerkships and congressional Republicans targeted its accreditation.

Three years later, UCLA Law School is facing similar headaches for saber-rattling against its own Federalist Society chapter and members if they identify the students who repeatedly disrupted its April 21 event with Department of Homeland Security general counsel James Percival, while allegedly letting the latter freely identify the former for harassment.

Assistant Dean for Student Affairs Bayrex Martí asked chapter President Matthew Weinberg in an April 22 email whether the group was going to share the "full" recording, whose clips were already circulating online, "with those who RSVP'd or whose attendance was confirmed? I know it was described as an event limited to the UCLA Law community."

In response to "requests online to identify students in the audience" from the video, Martí "would strongly encourage you and other organizers to not disclose those details," given the "context" and "difficulty in fully anticipating how that information could be used in the future."

If such information gets out, "and an implicated student reports behavior from anyone" that violates the student code of conduct, "the student organization and/or individual students could be connected to it (the allegation being that the outcome was reasonably predicted when the names were disclosed) and subjected to campus processes," Martí wrote.

Fox News reported that Percival alleged hearing "death threats" against him at the event, but the DHS general counsel didn't say that explicitly in comments it quoted from the Fox News Channel's The Will Cain Show. "I might get death threats when I go on a college campus, but the people I work with at DHS get death threats just for showing up to work every day," Percival said.

Attendees knew 'their presence and behavior would be easily ascertained'

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression on Wednesday posted Martí's email along with Reddit and Bluesky posts seeking to identify an attendee, using descriptions that appear to match Yitzchok Frankel, a plaintiff in the "Jew Exclusion Zone" lawsuit against UCLA that ended in a $6 million settlement, who is now a Los Angeles lawyer.

"Who's the smarmy guy who looks like Moe Szyslak?" one user asked, referring to The Simpsons character. That person sued UCLA because of "the encampments in 2024," another answered, referring to the so-called Jew Exclusion Zone.

UCLA Law third-year student James Womack posted a photo of Frankel at the event. "He's an a–hole" who secured a settlement from UCLA "when they allowed pro-Palestinian protests on Campus" when Womack was a first-year student, Womack wrote. "He sucks."

Frankel, who also testified at the Justice Department's Religious Liberty Commission hearing on antisemitism, confirmed Womack and others were referring to him. "The worst part is where the guy says I’m in my early 40’s, when I’m actually in my mid-late 30’s," he wrote on X.

The school threatened the chapter but showed "[n]o signs of concern" for protesters actually identifying chapter members, FIRE wrote on X. "This double standard is striking and sounds First Amendment alarms. [...] Stop picking favorites, UCLA."

The First Amendment protects students' right to "share truthful information about a public event, including the names of students who disrupted it," FIRE said. UCLA must state explicitly "no Fed Soc student member will face discipline for protected speech."

The group's April 27 letter to the dean of UCLA's law school, Michael Waterstone, elaborated on those points. 

"As is abundantly clear from the posted videos, the event was held in a large university lecture hall with a large audience of students and faculty present, any of whom could report publicly what occurred in the room," and the chapter told attendees ahead of time it would be recorded, the letter reads.

Attendees "had every expectation that their presence and behavior would be easily ascertained by people not personally in attendance," and the university "may not restrict protected speech merely to shield student protesters from the consequences of their actions" when it merely involved "criticism," just because administrators "foresee" it may cause problems.

FIRE noted student protesters posted photos and video from the event "alongside comments publicly identifying and mocking" FedSoc members, including Weinberg in the hallway.

The civil liberties group told Just the News on Thursday the university had responded "and we are currently discussing the matter with them, but the situation remains unresolved."

UCLA Law gave Just the News two statements through its outside public affairs firm. 

"We are committed to upholding the First Amendment. We have received the letter and plan to respond," it said Wednesday, pointing to Dean Waterstone's post-event statement.

"As a public university, UCLA is committed to upholding the First Amendment rights of all members of our community," it said Thursday. 

"UCLA does not discipline students for speech that is protected under the First Amendment. The initial communication was not intended to suggest otherwise, and we have apologized for any lack of clarity. UCLA School of Law also encourages students to engage one another with respect and care," the school said.

The public affairs firm didn't answer whether UCLA Law was saying it won't discipline either FedSoc members or protesters for identifying each other in any context, and what exactly Marti was asking Weinberg to do with the full recording of the event.

Protest instructions say no punishment unless they 'silence' DHS official

Frankel's viral video from the event shows protesters shouting outside the room and students inside repeatedly interrupting DHS's Percival with their voices and phones while holding up critical pieces of paper, including "F— you loser."

An apparent administrator periodically asked individuals to stop interrupting, but the video doesn't seem to show anyone being told to leave, though many loudly left while shouting slogans and profanity when Percival said he would answer submitted but not live questions. 

At least five campus police officers in the room did not intervene, though video appears to show the administrator and an officer separately approaching an individual who started wandering the now-sparsely populated room and lingering over seated people.

"These students can’t handle @FedSoc event about the law, but will remain students at @UCLA_Law and eventually be admitted to the Bar," Frankel wrote. "It is a damning indictment on higher education that students behave so despicably."

"The protests were planned days in advance and coordinated on Signal and Whatsapp," Pepperdine Law professor Greg McNeal, who moderated the event, wrote on X. "They started disrupting before the introductions were complete, they weren’t there to hear, listen, or question, they were there to disrupt in a coordinated manner."

McNeal posted the document he said was circulating among protesters, which complains too few had formally registered for the event as of April 17 "for a mass walkout to be effective," directs those who get in the room what to do, gives them talking points and asks them to vote on whether to walk out or stay and ask questions.

The document reassures protesters they can't be punished for violating UCLA's time, place and manner policies as long as they are not "so disruptive as to silence the invited speaker from communicating with a willing audience." McNeal noted they could have asked questions if they simply submitted them before the event.

Dean Waterstone's post-event statement, which didn't mention the Federalist Society or speaker, confirmed no one was disciplined. Some protesters simply violated the school's principles of "willingness to question assumptions and engage opposing arguments seriously" by "approaching difficult conversations with civility and respect, and careful listening." 

Protesters were "issued warnings and were either escorted out or left of their own accord," Waterstone said, downplaying the chronic interruptions captured on video as "some disruption" and pointing to unspecified "protest activity that was not disruptive" and "consistent with the First Amendment and University policies."

Waterstone emphasized the "moderated conversation" with Percival "continued throughout" the disruption and the event finished, showing that the protest instructions shared by McNeal worked.

He said the school is "reviewing all policies and will take necessary steps to ensure student groups can host speakers in an environment of civil engagement," so that students can "challenge content they disagree with" and "speakers cannot be limited because some disagree" with it. "Anything less is antithetical to our profession."

An X user said protesters violated at least three sections of UCLA's student conduct code: obstruction or disruption of university activities, disorderly behavior and disturbing the peace. 

"You’re under the impression that rules are enforced at UCLA," Frankel deadpanned.