Georgetown lecturer reinstated after controversial tweets about Biden Supreme Court pick

Formerly suspended Georgetown lecturer Ilya Shapiro announced on Thursday that he will resume his duties at the university. 

“I’m gratified that I’ll get to do the job for which I was hired more than four months ago,” he said in a tweeted statement. 

“As befitting a Center for the Constitution, all students and participants in my programs can expect to be accorded the freedom to think and speak freely and to be treated equally: a diversity of ideas will be most welcome,” he added.

Shapiro was suspended earlier this year after tweeting that President Biden was not going to nominate “the objectively best pick” but a “lesser Black woman” to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court.

Shapiro later issued an apology for his “poor choice of words.”

He was set to start as a senior lecturer at the university’s law school and executive administrator at the Center for the Constitution just one day after he was placed on administrative leave because of his tweets.

“Mr. Shapiro’s tweets are antithetical to the work that we do at Georgetown Law to build inclusion, belonging, and respect for diversity. They have been harmful to many in the Georgetown Law community and beyond,” William Treanor, the dean of Georgetown Law School, said of his remarks at the time of the tweets and reiterated in a statement on Thursday. 

Citing concerns about the tweets’ impact on the school community, especially Black women, Treanor called for an investigation into “whether Mr. Shapiro had violated the University’s policies on non-discrimination and on anti-harassment” or the university’s professional conduct policies. 

Treanor said Thursday that because the tweets were published on Jan. 26, and his tenure at Georgetown did not begin until Feb. 1, Shapiro “was not properly subject to discipline” for his actions.

The dean added that he met with Shapiro and stressed “that, although he has every right to express his views, I expect him, as a staff member at the Law Center, to communicate in a professional manner.”