(CNSNews.com) -- When federal Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan attempted to speak at a Federalist Society-sponsored event at Stanford Law School on Mar. 9, he was ambushed, mocked, and smeared by "woke" law school students and even the associate dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. 

Some of the radical law students insulted him, yelling "You're scum!" and "We hate you!" One protester screamed, "We hope your daughters get raped!"

In response to the outrageous behavior of these "future lawyers," Stanford Law School Dean Jenny S. Martinez released a letter to the law school "community" on Mar. 22.

In the 10-page letter, Martinez presents a tightly argued legal defense of the First Amendment and explains where hecklers sometimes cross the line and why this is not protected speech. She also condemns the treatment of Judge Duncan and notes that the associate dean, Tirien Steinbach, "is currently on leave."

She wrote the letter, Martinez says, because she wanted to respond to "many of the questions I continue to receive about why I apologized to Judge Duncan, why I stand by that apology, and why the protest violated the university’s policy on disruption. I articulate how I believe our commitment to diversity and inclusion means that we must protect the expression of all views."

She also notes that she and other law school personnel have received many "hateful and threatening messages" about the Duncan affair.

Quoting legal precedent, Martinez writes that "the First Amendment does not give protestors a 'heckler's veto," and "'freedom of speech does not protect a right to shout down others so they cannot be heard.'"

"[S]ettled First Amendment law allows many governmental restrictions on heckling to preserve the countervailing interest in free speech," writes the dean. 

"A university classroom setting for a guest speaker invited by a student organization is thus a setting where the First Amendment tolerates greater limitations on speech than it would in a traditional public forum," she adds.

Martinez also admonished the radical left law students who want to shut down Stanford's chapter of the Federalist Society. 

"The Federalist Society has the same rights of free association that other student organizations at the law school have," writes Martinez. "Students calling for the law school administration to restrict the organization or the speakers it can bring to campus are demanding action inconsistent not only with freedom of speech but with rights to freedom of association that civil rights lawyers fought hard in the twentieth century to secure."

Martinez also writes at length about SLS's committment to "support diversity, equity, and inclusion." However, this committment, she adds, "is not going to take the form of having the school administration announce institutional positions on a wide range of current social and political issues, make frequent institutional statements about current news events, or exclude or condemn speakers who hold views on social and political issues with whom some or even many in our community disagree."

"With regard to the norms of this community, the cycle of degenerating discourse won’t stop if we insist that people we disagree with must first behave the way we want them to," says Martinez. "Nor will it stop if we try to shame each other into submission...."

As a potential remedy to the "cycle of degenerating discourse" at the law school, Dean Martinez writes that the entire student body needs to undergo "mandatory educational training." This means the "law school will be holding a mandatory half-day session in spring quarter for all students on the topic of freedom of speech and the norms of the legal profession. A faculty committee will plan the session and invite speakers representing a range of viewpoints."

Commenting on what happened to Judge Duncan, famed Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz wrote, "It turns out that the disruption by several dozen Stanford University law school students of a speech to be given by federal judge Kyle Duncan was not a spontaneous exercise of freedom to protest."

"It was a well-planned and carefully orchestrated effort to prevent other Stanford students from hearing the judge’s conservative views," said Dershowitz. "The disruption was organized by the local chapter of National Lawyers Guild as part of a nationwide effort to suppress conservative speech. Although not all the participants were associated with the NLG, the main organizers were."

Carrie Severino, president of the Judicial Crisis Network, tweeted, "This is a strong letter from Stanford Law School's dean, Jenny Martinez. But if Stanford really means what it says, it will fire Tirien Steinbach."

Cherise Trump, executive director of Speech First, urged people to sing a petition to "Remove DEI Dean Steinbach!"

As the petition reads, "Not only did Dean Steinbach neglect to to bring civility to the event, she abused her position of power to encourage unruly student protesters and embarrass a federal judge, all while preventing him from sharing prepared remarks.

"... Stanford must take responsibility for allowing this to happen and demonstrate its renewed commitment to free speech and academic freedom. I urge Stanford to FIRE DEI Dean Steinbach immediately and hold student disrupters accountable for blocking Judge Duncan’s address."

Stuart Kyle Duncan is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, a position he was appointed to by President Donald Trump in 2017.