A group of protesters at Yale University disrupted a free speech oriented event to taunt Kristen Waggoner of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
According to the Washington Free Beacon, which shared the video, the students showed up at a “bipartisan panel on civil liberties,” and police were eventually called to escort them out.
That’s provoked a controversy on campus where hundreds of students are upset by the ADF’s record on LGBTQ issues.
Here’s what you need to know:
The Event Was Held to Show Common Ground on the First Amendment
According to Washington Free Beacon, the event was hosted on March 10, 2022, by the Yale Federalist Society.
The speakers were Monica Miller of the progressive American Humanist Association and Kristen Waggoner of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). The latter is a “conservative nonprofit that promotes religious liberty,” according to the Free Beacon, but hundreds of students see it as a hate group instead.
In the video, Professor Kate Stith tried to engage with the protesters, saying that interfering with speakers was not permitted, and Yale has a policy of freedom of speech.
“Will those trans kids grow up?” one protester said, as several stood with signs, and after Stith said told the protesters to grow up.
When Stith told them they were disrupting free speech, one protester responded, “You’re disrupting us.”
The Free Beacon reported that one protester told a member of the conservative group they would “literally fight you, b****” and some raised their middle fingers. Another yelled “f*** you” on the way out, according to the site, which added, “two members of the Federalist Society said they were grabbed and jostled as they attempted to leave.”
Waggoner told the Yale Daily News,
Future lawyers should have the critical thinking skills, intellectual curiosity, humility, and maturity to engage with ideas and legal principles that they may disagree with. Unfortunately, some students who attended the Federalist Society event refused to allow others to speak and acted in an aggressive and hostile manner towards me, Professor Kate Stith, and Monica Miller from the American Humanist Association.
According to Washington Free Beacon, at this event, the groups were on the same side of an issue: “a 2021 Supreme Court case involving legal remedies for First Amendment violations,” and the event was held to show that people from different perspectives could “find common ground on free speech issues.”
According to the Yale Federalist Society’s Facebook page, “Founded in 1982 as the flagship chapter, YLS FedSoc remains a vibrant intellectual community dedicated to rigorous debate of legal and public policy.”
The Supreme Court case in question was Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski. According to Oyez.org, that case from 2016, involved Chike Uzuegbunam, a student at Georgia Gwinnett College, who “began distributing religious literature in an outdoor plaza on GGC’s campus. The campus police stopped him, however, citing GGC’s ‘Freedom of Expression Policy, which stated that students were generally permitted to engage in expressive activities only in two designated speech zones, and only after reserving them.”
More Than 400 Students Signed an Open Letter in Protest of the Speaker
ADFKristen Waggoner
Yale Daily News called Waggoner “a controversial anti-LGBTQ speaker invited by the Federalist Society.”
The news site said that more than 120 students showed up at the protest and “at least four armed police were called to respond to the protest.” Yale Daily News reported that about 400 students, more than half of those in the Law Schoo, signed an open letter “condemning the presence of armed police” at the protest.
The letter says in part, “Even with all of the privilege afforded to us at YLS, the decision to allow police officers in as a response to the protest put YLS’ queer student body at risk of harm.”
The Daily News reported that Waggoner’s role as the general counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom.
That group’s website describes itself as, “the world’s largest legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, marriage and family, parental rights, and the sanctity of life. We defend your most cherished liberties in Congress, state legislatures, and courtrooms across the country—all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.”
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center,
Founded by some 30 leaders of the Christian Right, the Alliance Defending Freedom is a legal advocacy and training group that has supported the recriminalization of sexual acts between consenting LGBTQ adults in the U.S. and criminalization abroad; has defended state-sanctioned sterilization of trans people abroad; has contended that LGBTQ people are more likely to engage in pedophilia; and claims that a “homosexual agenda” will destroy Christianity and society.
Waggoner’s biography on the ADF website describes her this way:
Kristen K. Waggoner serves as General Counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom. Her role includes oversight of the U.S. Legal Division and Communications, which includes over 100 attorneys and staff who engage in litigation, public advocacy, and legislative support. Since 2014, ADF has represented prevailing parties in twelve U.S. Supreme Court victories, including Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which she argued at the Supreme Court. She also served as counsel in the free speech victory the Supreme Court handed down in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra and she argued Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski at the high court in the 2020-21 term.
Waggoner has extensive experience in civil litigation, and in employment, education, nonprofit, and constitutional law. After clerking with Washington Supreme Court Justice Richard B. Sanders and interning with U.S. Rep. Linda Smith, Waggoner joined Ellis, Li & McKinstry, a Seattle law firm, where she served as a partner from 2004 until she joined ADF in 2013. At ELM, Waggoner participated as counsel in hundreds of legal matters including constitutional cases such as Andersen v. King County (same-sex marriage), Stormans v. Wiesman (pharmacists’ conscience rights), State ex rel Gallwey v. Grimm (financial aid to religious university students), and State v. Hamlin (clergy-penitent privilege).
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