Ralph Nader Assails Law Firm’s Vow to Exclude Some Campus Protesters

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Three prominent lawyers, among them the consumer safety activist and four-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader, sent a letter on Tuesday to a leader of the Wall Street law firm Sullivan & Cromwell to condemn the firm’s policy of scrutinizing job applicants’ participation in protests over Israel’s war in Gaza. The letter, addressed to Joseph C. Shenker, one of the firm’s two senior chairs, was the most prominent criticism of Sullivan & Cromwell’s policy yet from within the legal field. It was also signed by Bruce Fein, a Justice Department official under President Ronald Reagan, and Lou Fisher, a constitutional scholar who worked for 40 years at the Library of Congress. Sullivan & Cromwell said in May that it would use a background-check company to review job applicants’ involvement with pro-Palestinian student groups and in antiwar protests for statements and slogans it deemed to be “triggering” to Jews, including the ubiquitous protest slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Under the policy, applicants risk being disqualified for a job at the firm even if they weren’t using problematic language themselves but were involved with a protest where others did.