EXCLUSIVE — Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge James Ho doubled down on his refusal to hire clerks from certain elite law schools, saying the cancel culture he's witnessed on campuses is "antithetical to America."

In an interview with the Washington Examiner, Ho said his hiring boycott against Yale University and Stanford University has already made waves and garnered support among students who see discourse on their campuses improving.

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"The real problem with the academy is not disruption but discrimination," he said. "Rampant discrimination against mainstream views held by millions of Americans but disfavored by the cultural elites who control the national discourse.”

“The intolerance we’re seeing on campus is antithetical to America, and it’s especially antithetical to the academy," Ho continued. "They need to put an end not only to the disruption but also to the discrimination. Otherwise, I have no choice but to change how I hire.”

Ho spoke to the Washington Examiner after delivering the keynote address at the Heritage Foundation's 16th Joseph Story Distinguished Lecture on Wednesday evening, where he challenged the lack of fortitude of federal judges, saying many suffer from "gold star syndrome" that disables their abilities to issue tough or unpopular decisions.

Too many judges, he said, are motivated by personal achievement, social climbing, and cowering to public dissent, as opposed to public service.

"If your whole life’s purpose is to wear black robes, then maybe you shouldn’t," he said, implying "gold star" judges should resign. "No one forced you to become a judge. You agreed to become a judge. Some people even lobby and campaign for it. And you can quit anytime you want."

"If you do the job faithfully, you should expect to be either hated or ignored," Ho added.

The judge, a 2018 appointee of former President Donald Trump, said after his address that public criticism and making potentially unpopular decisions is part of the job when faithfully interpreting the Constitution.

"I’d say that it’s the God-given right of every red-blooded American to yell at refs," he said in his speech, referencing Chief Justice John Roberts's comparison of judges to umpires. "I’d say the exact same thing about criticizing judges."

Ho told judges to "expect," "get used to," and "get comfortable" with public criticism, noting that sharp dissent his historical precedent. Thomas Jefferson, he noted, once referred to the judiciary as a "subtle corps of sappers [and] miners constantly working underground to undermine the foundations of our confederated fabric," while Theodore Roosevelt said of former Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes that one "could carve out of a banana a judge with more backbone than that."

But today, judges face a different kind of dissent, particularly if they are originalists, Ho said. "The biggest challenge facing originalists is not a matter of intellect, but a matter of intimidation and insult," Ho told the Washington Examiner. He noted in his speech that being an "originalist" is implied in the oath of office for taking the bench.

Those tactics are being allowed by some of the nation's top law schools, which have been the sites of students shouting down conservative speakers and judges, which Ho said is just a "symptom of the core problem."

Ho has been an outspoken figure regarding free speech on college campuses, vowing to boycott hiring clerks from both Yale University and Stanford University for allowing students to shout down conservative speakers.

In April, Ho and his 11th Circuit colleague Elizabeth Branch announced a public boycott of hiring clerks from Stanford because students and faculty there berated 5th Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan, calling him "scum" and saying, "We hope your daughters get raped."

Ho called the incident "intellectual terrorism" when announcing the boycott.

The judge referenced two recent surveys: one found about 66% of college students believe it is fine to shout down a speaker, and another found 41% of students say that violence may be appropriate to deal with disagreement.

The prestige of many top law schools is their ability to place students in prominent clerkships, something at which Ho's and Branch's boycotts are taking direct aim. While Ho and Branch are public about their boycotts, they are two of a growing number of about 14 judges who have taken the same path.

“I think a critical mass of judges would unquestionably have an impact," Ho said, encouraging other judges to join him. "We look to law schools to train the best and the brightest to assist us with the work of the courts. And law schools consistently tell us how much they value their relationship with judges.”

But the problem at schools, Ho explained, is not just about students but rather a systematic rejection of conservative faculty members as well. "Colleges and universities claim they care about intellectual diversity," he said. "But they exclude certain views from the faculty. That tells millions of Americans that their views have no place in elite circles."

Those views include originalism, which Ho said in his speech was "not some abstract, academic question of interpretive methodology. For millions of Americans, their passion for originalism comes from the fact that they like our Constitution. They like what it says, what it protects and shields against the ravages of the mob, and what it entrusts to the people and the democratic process to decide."

On college campuses, however, "originalists are disparaged and destroyed. We’re not merely wrong as an intellectual matter — we’re not just disagreeing in good faith about the proper meaning of legal terms — we’re fundamentally bad people who are too extreme for polite society. We’re mean-spirited, racist, sexist, homophobic. We’re just trolling or auditioning. We’re unethical, if not corrupt."

“I’m always told it’s just a small fraction of students who practice intolerance," Ho told the Washington Examiner, adding that "professors and deans are saying they’re scared of the students."

"But the majority tolerates it," he continued, "because faculty don’t want to become controversial, and students just want to graduate, get a job, and move on with their lives."

“I’m not interested in hiring from schools that indoctrinate rather than educate. Students need to be aware of the kinds of schools they’re considering," he said. "Judges look to law schools to train lawyers, not activists.”

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While Ho explained that his boycotts were initially received with mixed feelings, he has since heard from many students and scholars at Yale who have seen the fruits of it working.

"The boycott has already inspired a significant change in attitudes," they tell him. "They worry that the change is fleeting. They’ve asked us not to withdraw the boycott until they see more permanent change.”