Ilya Shapiro joined Professor Marshall Breger’s seminar on “Free Speech” March 24 to discuss his forthcoming book, Lawless: The Miseducation of America’s Elites (2025). Shapiro, currently a Fellow at the Manhattan Institute in New York City, previously served as Vice President and Director of the Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute. In 2022, he briefly joined Georgetown University’s Center for the Constitution to lead its Institute of Constitutional Studies.

During the seminar, Shapiro recounted his experiences at Georgetown Law School, where a controversial tweet regarding his opinion on President Biden’s Supreme Court nominee sparked a public uproar. Although Shapiro admitted the tweet was poorly phrased, the backlash led to his suspension and subsequent reinstatement on a jurisdictional technicality. Ultimately, this controversy influenced his decision to leave Georgetown.

Shapiro began by sharing his personal story and fielded questions from students about his time at Georgetown. The discussion included perspectives from across the political spectrum, allowing for a dynamic exchange of ideas. The conversation then shifted to topics like Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), exploring the nuanced differences between equity and equality in the DEI framework.

Shapiro also highlighted a growing concern in legal academia: the burgeoning administrative bureaucracy in law schools, where the number of support staff now often surpasses faculty. He discussed how this trend impacts free speech and the broader academic environment. The seminar concluded with an engaging dialogue on strategies to foster a culture of free speech within law schools.

Other notable speakers in Professor Breger’s seminar include Jon Zimmerman from the University of Pennsylvania and Marc Stern from the American Jewish Committee.

Professor Breger, who teaches Administrative Law and courses on the Middle East peace process, is a faculty member at Catholic Law.