Ethics panel supports judges’ clerk ban over anti-Israel protests at Columbia

A group of eight federal judges who vowed to boycott hiring law clerks who graduated from Columbia University in response to the school’s handling of anti-Israel protests have been cleared of any wrongdoing, an appeals court panel decided on Monday.

The Judicial Council for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit upheld a June ruling by the circuit’s chief judge, Priscilla Richman, dismissing a complaint against eight unnamed judges. The complaint was initially filed by an unnamed state prisoner against one appellate judge and seven federal district judges, according to the decision.