Balkinization  

Wednesday, May 11, 2022

My civil war against Ilya Shapiro

Andrew Koppelman

The liberal left these days is constantly colliding with, and trying to make its case against, the illiberal left.  I’ve been pursuing a strategy of internal critique: illiberalism threatens to thwart the left’s admirable goals.

A few weeks ago, I was invited to appear on a panel with Ilya Shapiro, who had previously been prevented from speaking by an angry mob at Hastings Law School.  A similar disruption involving a different speaker had happened at the University of Michigan, so the Federalist Society asked me to join Shapiro’s event as a sort of left wing counterweight.

I decided to use the occasion to explain why I’m happy to be able to debate people like Shapiro, whose views I find repellent, and why people on the left ought to welcome that opportunity.  Now Shapiro and I have jointly written a piece for Heterodox Academy about our encounter in Michigan, describing what we each said to the other.

It is here.


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