The dean of Stanford Law School and the university president apologized to federal Judge Kyle Duncan after a group of students and at least one administrator disrupted a planned lecture by the Republican-appointed jurist last week.

In a Saturday letter, Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and law school Dean Jenny Martinez apologized to Duncan, a Trump appointee on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, for the disruption of his Thursday lecture, and said "what happened was inconsistent with our policies on free speech."

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"We are very clear with our students that, given our commitment to free expression, if there are speakers they disagree with, they are welcome to exercise their right to protest but not to disrupt the proceedings," the two administrators wrote. "We are taking steps to ensure that something like this does not happen again. Freedom of speech is a bedrock principle for the law school, the university, and a democratic society, and we can and must do better to ensure that it continues even in polarized times."

The incident is the latest in a string of high-profile disruptions of conservative speakers at prestigious law schools. Last year, Judge James Ho, who also serves on the 5th Circuit, said he would no longer hire clerks from Yale Law School after a group of students disrupted an event with Alliance Defending Freedom's Kristen Waggoner.

Duncan was supposed to speak about the "conversation" between Supreme Court and the 5th Circuit on COVID restrictions and gun laws, but the event was disrupted by a group of protesters that included associate dean of diversity, equity, and inclusion Tirien Steinbach.

The disrupters repeatedly shouted at Duncan that he was a "scumbag" and drowned out the judge's attempts to speak. Later, Steinbach proceeded to lecture Duncan for several minutes, saying that his judicial opinions "land as absolute disenfranchisement" and are "tearing the fabric of this community."

In a statement to National Review, the judge said he accepted the university's apology and said he "look[s] forward to learning what measures Stanford plans to take to restore a culture of intellectual freedom."

"I particularly appreciate the apology’s important acknowledgment that 'staff members who should have enforced university policies failed to do so, and instead intervened in inappropriate ways that are not aligned with the university’s commitment to free speech.' Particularly given the depth of the invective directed towards me by the protesters, the administrators’ behavior was completely at odds with the law school’s mission of training future members of the bench and bar," Duncan said.

Despite the apology, the law school's acting dean of students, Jeanne Merino, reportedly told students from the law school's Federalist Society chapter, which hosted the event, that they should turn to Steinbach and several other administrative staff for support if they were "concerned" about their safety, the Washington Free Beacon reported .

"There is much to process about Thursday’s event and its aftermath, but the focus of this email is to provide you with resources that you can use right now to support your safety and mental health," Merino wrote in the email. "I’ve seen and heard from several of you who are concerned for your safety and are having a hard time processing last week’s events. I am so sorry that you are having to deal with this difficulty at all, much less now. Please pass this information on to your broader membership."