\nIn his capstone paper for the class, [Preston] Damsky argued that the framers had intended for the phrase \u201cWe the People,\u201d in the Constitution\u2019s preamble, to refer exclusively to white people. From there, he argued for the removal of voting rights protections for nonwhites, and for the issuance of shoot-to-kill orders against \u201ccriminal infiltrators at the border.\u201d
\u2026
At the end of the semester, Mr. Damsky, 29, was given the \u201cbook award,\u201d which designated him as the best student in the class. According to the syllabus, the capstone counted the most toward final grades.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nUnflinching Originalism and high marks \u2014 could Mr. Damsky be the poster child for the \u201cconservative ideals\u201d Skadden pledged to incorporate in to its Fellows program<\/a>? And before you hand wave associating his extremism with conservatism proper, gerrymandering to water down black votership<\/a> and Texan immigrant murder buoys<\/a> are squarely contemporary conservative policy; Damsky isn\u2019t breaking much new ground here. In fact, the ground is so old that he appears to be plagiarizing Ku Klux Klan \u201cscholarship\u201d from the 1860s:<\/p>\n
\n \n\nLast bit. This is from Jared Goldstein’s “The Klan’s Constitution.” I mean, just read it. It is. The. Same. Which means, yes. A sitting federal judge gave a Klan paper by an avowed Nazi a best-paper award in a law school class. At a top-40 US law school. Yes, I am annoyed.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Evan Bernick, a finite mode with a smol hooman and a lorg floof (@evanbernick.bsky.social)<\/a> 2025-06-21T18:19:06.239Z<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
I think that the proper response to public affirmations of Nazi or Klan talking points is the one provided by the Man of Steel:<\/p>\n
\n \n\nSuperman beating the shit out of nazis, a true role model. pic.twitter.com\/GvrlKOkB8o<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 ClarkQuill97 (@CQuill97) January 22, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
Alas, we\u2019re far past the historical period of \u201cYour politics put you on the same side of history as David Duke\u201d having any real bite to it. Writing for the Volokh Conspiracy, Josh Blackman<\/a> decided to skip past the paper\u2019s White Genocide rhetoric (\u201c\u2019The People cannot be expected to meekly swallow this demographic assault on their sovereignty,\u2019 he wrote, adding that if the courts did not act to ensure a white country, the matter would be decided \u2018not by the careful balance of Justitia\u2019s scales, but by the gruesome slashing of her sword.’\u201d) and instead spends the first paragraph of his piece praising how expertly the footnotes were Bluebooked. Why not mention how immaculately ironed the SS\u2019s Hugo Boss suits were while we\u2019re at it? Blackman\u2019s ultimate criticism was that Damsky argued against the abolition of slavery and equal protection to vote in the wrong parts of his paper.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re interested in an adult\u2019s assessment of the paper, here\u2019s Anthony Michael Kreis. His is the best we have to work with considering Judge Badalamenti failed to tell why he thought Dylan Roof\u2019s manifesto in a law school sweater deserved an award:<\/p>\n
\n \n\nThis was my initial reaction reading it weeks ago:<\/p>\n
\u2014 Anthony Michael Kreis (@anthonymkreis.bsky.social)<\/a> 2025-06-23T15:01:17.012Z<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
Kreis\u2019s move to focus on the actual players at hand and not the paper is the right one. The New York Times article mentions that Damsky wants to go on to be a prosecutor. He shouldn\u2019t be trusted to prosecute traffic violations \u2014 they disproportionately target minorities enough as it is<\/a>. He snagged an internship that was eventually rescinded by Brian Kramer, thank God. PrawfsBlawg floats the question of if Damsky should be able to pass character and fitness after submitting a manifesto like this: they point out that a neo-Nazi was denied admission to the Illinois bar in the 1990s<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Grading aside, let\u2019s be thankful that this white supremacist was foolish enough to voice his thoughts out loud. So often people who think like this have enough tact to keep their racism under wraps until they join the force<\/a> or get sat somewhere as a judge<\/a>. Let\u2019s hope more of them come forward to get rooted out quickly. <\/p>\n
A White Nationalist Wrote a Law School Paper Promoting Racist Views. It Won Him an Award.<\/a> [NYT]<\/p>\n
\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim,\u00a0is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0cwilliams@abovethelaw.com <\/a>and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n
The post Trump Judge Gives Nazi-Sympathizing Law Student High Marks For Rehashing Klan Legal Theory Calling For Minority Disenfranchisement And Murdering Immigrants<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The core of modern conservative ideology isn\u2019t that hard to understand. It has three axioms:<\/p>\n
1) White is Right.
2) Violence toward members of outside groups is encouraged, actually \u2014 it reinforces social cohesion and feels good to boot!
3) The proper way to deal with the poor is to pass policies which hasten their deaths and blame the outcome on \u201cthe market deciding.\u201d<\/p>\nThis isn\u2019t the definitive list \u2014 I personally believe that the second rule is just a corollary of rule one \u2014 but it will help you decode most Fox News segments, White House press releases, and a recent University of Florida Levin College of Law paper that scored top marks from Trump-nominated Judge John L. Badalamenti that is making headlines. From the New York Times<\/a>:<\/p>\n
\nIn his capstone paper for the class, [Preston] Damsky argued that the framers had intended for the phrase \u201cWe the People,\u201d in the Constitution\u2019s preamble, to refer exclusively to white people. From there, he argued for the removal of voting rights protections for nonwhites, and for the issuance of shoot-to-kill orders against \u201ccriminal infiltrators at the border.\u201d
\u2026
At the end of the semester, Mr. Damsky, 29, was given the \u201cbook award,\u201d which designated him as the best student in the class. According to the syllabus, the capstone counted the most toward final grades.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nUnflinching Originalism and high marks \u2014 could Mr. Damsky be the poster child for the \u201cconservative ideals\u201d Skadden pledged to incorporate in to its Fellows program<\/a>? And before you hand wave associating his extremism with conservatism proper, gerrymandering to water down black votership<\/a> and Texan immigrant murder buoys<\/a> are squarely contemporary conservative policy; Damsky isn\u2019t breaking much new ground here. In fact, the ground is so old that he appears to be plagiarizing Ku Klux Klan \u201cscholarship\u201d from the 1860s:<\/p>\n
I think that the proper response to public affirmations of Nazi or Klan talking points is the one provided by the Man of Steel:<\/p>\n
Alas, we\u2019re far past the historical period of \u201cYour politics put you on the same side of history as David Duke\u201d having any real bite to it. Writing for the Volokh Conspiracy, Josh Blackman<\/a> decided to skip past the paper\u2019s White Genocide rhetoric (\u201c\u2019The People cannot be expected to meekly swallow this demographic assault on their sovereignty,\u2019 he wrote, adding that if the courts did not act to ensure a white country, the matter would be decided \u2018not by the careful balance of Justitia\u2019s scales, but by the gruesome slashing of her sword.’\u201d) and instead spends the first paragraph of his piece praising how expertly the footnotes were Bluebooked. Why not mention how immaculately ironed the SS\u2019s Hugo Boss suits were while we\u2019re at it? Blackman\u2019s ultimate criticism was that Damsky argued against the abolition of slavery and equal protection to vote in the wrong parts of his paper.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re interested in an adult\u2019s assessment of the paper, here\u2019s Anthony Michael Kreis. His is the best we have to work with considering Judge Badalamenti failed to tell why he thought Dylan Roof\u2019s manifesto in a law school sweater deserved an award:<\/p>\n
Kreis\u2019s move to focus on the actual players at hand and not the paper is the right one. The New York Times article mentions that Damsky wants to go on to be a prosecutor. He shouldn\u2019t be trusted to prosecute traffic violations \u2014 they disproportionately target minorities enough as it is<\/a>. He snagged an internship that was eventually rescinded by Brian Kramer, thank God. PrawfsBlawg floats the question of if Damsky should be able to pass character and fitness after submitting a manifesto like this: they point out that a neo-Nazi was denied admission to the Illinois bar in the 1990s<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Grading aside, let\u2019s be thankful that this white supremacist was foolish enough to voice his thoughts out loud. So often people who think like this have enough tact to keep their racism under wraps until they join the force<\/a> or get sat somewhere as a judge<\/a>. Let\u2019s hope more of them come forward to get rooted out quickly. <\/p>\n
A White Nationalist Wrote a Law School Paper Promoting Racist Views. It Won Him an Award.<\/a> [NYT]<\/p>\n
\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim,\u00a0is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0[email\u00a0protected] <\/a>and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The core of modern conservative ideology isn\u2019t that hard to understand. It has three axioms: 1) White is Right.2) Violence toward members of outside groups is encouraged, actually \u2014 it reinforces social cohesion and feels good to boot!3) The proper way to deal with the poor is to pass policies which hasten their deaths and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":123844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Chris-Williams-2025-xyPuWN.jpeg?fit=512%2C288&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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