In October 2019, HLS Dean John Manning and members of the HLS Curriculum Committee held a meeting to discuss upcoming curricular changes and additions. During this meeting, Dean Manning discussed a proposed Religious Freedom Clinic, which came as a surprise to most students in the room. As it turned out, HLS had decided to form this clinic primarily in the dark, with no formal process to solicit input from the broader student body or a coalition of student groups.
In reaction to this announcement, Lambda asked Dean Manning whether the proposed clinic would engage in work that seeks to abridge the civil rights of or otherwise discriminate against LGBTQ+ people. Citing the principle of academic freedom, Dean Manning refused to directly respond to the question. Accordingly, we on the Lambda executive board assembled a coalition of students who co-authored and signed a letter to Dean Manning seeking a guarantee that the clinic would not weaponize “religious freedom” to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people or jeopardize reproductive justice. In that same letter, we also raised questions about the administration’s lack of transparency in regard to the clinic’s source of funding as well as a timeline for when the clinic will open.
The questions we asked in the letter, as a collective representing over 50 percent of the student body, included: “Could this clinic take on work in support of conversion therapy? Could this clinic undermine the rights of the trans community, involving, for example, healthcare, employment, or incarceration? Could the clinic hinder women’s access to reproductive healthcare? When and how did the administration begin establishing or forming this clinic? And has HLS secured any outside funding for this clinic? If so, who is funding it?” We also drew attention to the major issue of funding clinics more generally. As we wrote last fall, “In a system in which funding from the wealthiest donors dictates the availability of HLS clinics, how will clinics serve low-income or marginalized communities that may lack the resources to endow new clinics?”
This statement was sent to Dean Manning on Nov. 21, 2019. The HLS student government also passed an unanimous resolution (15-0) calling on Dean Manning to commit to principles of transparency and non-discrimination in the development of the clinic on Nov. 20.
More than three months later, after a series of unproductive, informal meetings with various deans and administrators during which Lambda board members were stonewalled and ignored, Dean Manning and the HLS administration have yet to provide adequate assurances to Lambda or answer some of our most basic questions about the proposed clinic. In response to the administration’s stonewalling tactics and steadfast refusal to meet our demands, Lambda hosted a public rally on Feb. 26, 2020 outside the main law school building to echo our concerns with attendance from a broad cross section of students. Following the rally, we also hand-delivered all of our rally signs to Dean Manning’s office.
In sum, HLS is ignoring and dismissing its most valuable resource — its student body — by remaining silent over the numerous and deafening calls for more transparent, honest, and frequent communication. Prioritizing concepts of academic freedom, without defining what that might look like or who leading this clinic would exercise that freedom, leaves the LGBTQ+ community at this institution and beyond more vulnerable. Without the commitment we and many other student organizations seek, we worry this clinic could fly in the face of the law school’s own non-discrimination policy.
To be clear, a clinic addressing religious liberties could do important and pressing advocacy work. We fully support a clinic that would provide legal services for religious minorities, incarcerated individuals, and religious asylum-seekers and a clinic aimed at addressing urgent problems of bigotry, Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism. However, without adequate assurances from the administration, the possible damage this clinic could do should be seen in light of recent large-scale efforts in Massachusetts to roll back trans rights and to reimplement “conversion therapy” for minors. A clinic that diverts funds that could be used to fight the steady rise in hate crimes against US religious minorities would be not only be a gross waste of resources (if the clinic receives initial funding on the same scale as Stanford Law School’s Religious Liberties Clinic, around $1.6 million) but also a crude institutional betrayal of the LGBTQ+ student body and the mission of clinical education.
Accordingly, we reaffirm our two demands to Dean Manning and the HLS administration: 1. Pledge that the Religious Freedom Clinic will not take on any cases that seek to abridge the civil rights of LGBTQ+ people or to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity; 2. Institute a formal, transparent process to solicit student input before any major changes to the curriculum, such as the addition of a new clinic.
In short, we call on Dean Manning and the HLS administration: Communicate, Don’t Discriminate.
3L Youzhihang Deng and 2L Matt Shields serve as the HLS Lambda Co-Presidents. Mia Gettenberg, a 2L, serves as Campus Advocacy Co-Chair on the Executive Board.