An Open Letter to Cornell Law School Regarding Professor Jacobson

We, the many undersigned, are writing to bring attention to a series of startling articles written by a Cornell Law School professor and to call on the school to take immediate action. Clinical Professor William A. Jacobson is the Director of Cornell Law School’s Securities Law Clinic and a lead contributor to a blog-style website called Legal Insurrection. Professor Jacobson has written frequently and critically of Black Lives Matter on his blog and, more recently, has written a number of articles concerning the murder of George Floyd and the ensuing protests.

One of his recent entries, published on June 4, 2020, is titled “Reminder: ‘Hands up, don’t shoot’ is a fabricated narrative from the Michael Brown case.” Without any evidence, Jacobson concludes that Black Lives Matter “seeks to tear down our society to achieve their [M]arxist goals” and lumps together all those who support Black Lives Matter as “violent instigators.” These unfounded accusations by a professor would be troubling at any time, but to make them now, and repeatedly, in response to the murders of unarmed Black people such as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Philando Castile, appears to be a bad faith attempt to defend or equivocate these murders by delegitimizing those leading the protests.

While Professor Jacobson frames these arguments as matters of simple political disagreement, the arguments that Professor Jacobson advances in these articles echo the tactics utilized by white supremacists to delegitimize the civil rights movement: conflating far-left and racial equality movements. By taking advantage of the anti-communist hysteria of the Cold War era, white supremacists attempted to undermine the racial equality movement under the pretext of national security. Famously, for nearly a decade the FBI, under Director Hoover, engaged in covert operations against Martin Luther King, Jr., the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), claiming that Dr. King and the groups were influenced by, and acting on behalf of, Soviet-led Communists. Ultimately these claims were unsubstantiated, and they were used as a pretext for the federal government’s violent, racist agenda against racial equality.

On June 2, 2020, Jacobson published another article, shamefully titled “The Bloodletting and Wilding Is Part of An Agenda To Tear Down The Country.” Professor Jacobson uses the word “Wilding” in the same way it was used to vilify, prosecute, and wrongfully convict the Central Park 5. In this article, Professor Jacobson similarly attacks the legitimacy of Black Lives Matter, stating conclusorily that Black Lives Matter was “founded based on fraudulent narratives of the Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown cases” and are “led by anti-American, anti-capitalist activists” who “will exploit George Floyd’s death mercilessly to drive that agenda” — but he does not stop there. Professor Jacobson calls for the federal government to engage in “a massive and relentless tracking down of the people who helped coordinate the violence.” This statement can only be read as calling for violence against, and detention of, protesting Black Americans and those that support them.

Cornell hired Professor Jacobson in 2007 to run the Securities Law Clinic. He has been writing for Legal Insurrection since 2008. Securities law is an important area of the law that many Cornell Law School graduates practice. As one of only a few securities law specialists at Cornell Law School and the only professor running the securities clinic, Professor Jacobson’s writings alienate Black students and their allies, thereby discouraging them from participating in his clinic and depriving them of a valuable opportunity.

We hope that Cornell Law School will uphold President Pollack’s commitment to “address this scourge of racism” and take immediate action with respect to Professor Jacobson. Failure to do so will serve only to perpetuate the system Black Lives Matter is fighting to combat, and undermine Cornell’s anti-racist commitments. Silence here would belie Cornell Law School’s founding mission: to produce “large-minded, morally based lawyers in the best sense.”

We believe that Professor Jacobson’s writings demean the institution that we know and cherish. While we understand the importance of academic freedoms, these exist to protect professors advancing controversial views in their field of study. That is not the case here:

• Professor Jacobson holds himself out as Cornell Law faculty, including by directing Legal Insurrection readers to his Cornell biography, and uses the institutional legitimacy of Cornell Law School in order to elevate his racist and conspiratorial views;
• Professor Jacobson’s writings are within neither his field of study nor the scope of his academic role at Cornell as a securities clinic instructor;
• Professor Jacobson’s articles are not academic — he does not subject his controversial views to the rigors of peer review or the law journal editorial process; and
• Professor Jacobson’s extracurricular writings undermine his ability to fulfill his primary role as clinical faculty by creating a hostile environment for Black law students and their allies.

Therefore, we believe it is necessary for Cornell Law School to end its association with Professor Jacobson and publicly condemn these views as antithetical to the values of Cornell Law School. Now more than ever, it is essential that the administration demonstrate its moral leadership and serve as a beacon in our fight against anti-Black, racist rhetoric.

If you are a Cornell Law School alumnus and would like to add your name to this letter, please click here: https://airtable.com/shrzcDxNc4AJ5tvTr.

We will update this list daily with new signatories.

Signatories have been vetted to the best of our ability.