Stanford Law School drops threat to withhold law student's graduation diploma after he wrote satirical flier mocking Sen. Josh Hawley and Texas AG Ken Paxton for 'inciting the Capitol riot'
Stanford University has dropped a threat to withhold a law student's graduation diploma after he wrote a satirical flier mocking a conservative society over the US Capitol riot.
Nicholas Wallace, 33, will be allowed to graduate from the prestigious California college as planned on June 12.
Wallace's diploma was put in jeopardy after he posted a satirical flier for a fake Federalist Society event purportedly welcoming Senator Josh Hawley and Texas AG Ken Paxton to speak to the conservative group.
Stanford came under fire after it was revealed the school was withholding Wallace's diploma and had launched an investigation into the fake flier following complaints from the school's conservative group the Stanford Federalist Society.
Wallace had emailed a flier to a law school email listserv on January 25 parodying the society as well as Hawley and Paxton.
The flier, titled 'The Originalist Case for Inciting Insurrection,' promoted a fake event on January 6 welcoming the two Republicans to speak about 'violent insurrection.'
Nicholas Wallace, 33, (pictured) sent a satirical flier to a Stanford Law School email listserv on January 25 parodying the school's Federalist Society and Hawley and Paxton
Titled 'The Originalist Case for Inciting Insurrection,' it promoted a fake event on January 6 welcoming the Republicans to speak about 'violent insurrection'
Stanford confirmed Wednesday to Slate, which first reported the saga, that Wallace will be allowed to graduate and that his satirical email falls under protected speech.
'The complaint was resolved as expeditiously as possible, and the respondent and complainant have been informed that case law supports that the email is protected speech,' it said in a statement
'For that reason, and pursuant to the Leonard Law, the university is not moving forward with the OCS process and the graduation diploma hold has been released.'
Wallace also confirmed the complaint had been dropped in an email to his fellow students.
'I hope to work with Stanford in the little time I have left to make sure no student is subjected to an abuse of power this way again,' he wrote.
'PS this email is not satire,' he added.
While private universities do not have to follow free speech laws, California's Leonard Law states that both public and private institutions are governed by First Amendment protections.
The Supreme Court has previously ruled that satire falls under the First Amendment as protected speech.
Stanford University walked back its threat to withhold Wallace's graduation diploma over the incident Wednesday
In the flyer, Wallace mockingly detailed that the focus of the event would be discussing the merits of a coup and staging a violent insurrection to gain a desired political outcome.
'Violent insurrection, also known as doing a coup, is a classical system of installing a government,' the flier read.
'Although widely believed to conflict in every way with the rule of law, violent insurrection can be an effective approach to upholding the principle of limited government.'
It continued: 'Senator Hawley will argue that the ends justify the means.
'Attorney General Paxton will explain that when the Supreme Court refuses to exercise its Article III authority to overturn the results of a free and fair election, calling on a violent mob to storm the Capitol represents an appropriate alternative remedy.'
The MAGA mob riot at the US Capitol on January 6 left five dead and sent lawmakers running for their lives. The parody event was dated January 6
Sen. Josh Hawley (left) and Texas AG Ken Paxton (right) were among those accused of inciting the violent insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6 as they rallied behind Donald Trump's false claims of election fraud and pushed for the presidential election to be overturned
The two Republicans were among those accused of inciting riots at the US Capitol on January 6 as they rallied behind Donald Trump's false claims of election fraud and pushed for the presidential election to be overturned.
The flier had been mocked up in the same style as Stanford Federalist Society's emails.
It was widely shared on social media and USA Today published an article fact-checking the flier, confirming it to be satire.
Despite the flier being mailed out 19 days after the date of the fake event it advertised - and 19 days after the MAGA mob riot that culminated in five deaths - the Stanford Federalist Society filed a complaint claiming Wallace 'defamed' the group, Hawley and Paxton.
The complaint was not filed until March - two months on from the incident and just days after Wallace planned a real virtual event titled 'The Federalist Society's Connections to the Insurrection' at Stanford.
Despite the flier being mailed out 19 days after January 6 the Stanford Federalist Society filed a complaint (above) claiming Wallace 'defamed' the group, Hawley and Paxton
'Wallace defamed the student group, its officers, Senator Josh Hawley, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton,' it read, claiming people were 'deceived' by the memo.
The Federalist Society then pushed the university again in May to open a formal probe into Wallace.
Wallace told Slate he only learned about the complaint on his final day of classes on May 27.
He said he was told the school was investigating him for 'a possible violation' of the school's code of conduct and found out it would not only jeopardize his graduation but also his ability to take the bar exam.
Graduates are required to send their diplomas on graduation to the Michigan bar to be able to take the exam in the summer.
Wallace told Slate it had piled on the pressure in his final days at the school.
Stanford launched a probe and revealed it was withholding Wallace's diploma over the fake flier. Pictured Wallace
A Slate journalist tweeted an email from Wallace Wednesday also confirming the complaint has been resolved and the third-year student will be allowed to graduate to plan on June 12
'It has been a pretty awful way to close out my career at Stanford,' he said.
'Instead of studying for finals, I'm trying to figure this out. I just sent an email to my family trying to reassure them that I haven't blown it in my last few days at Stanford.'
He added that he believed the Federalist Society was retaliating against him over the March event, given the timing of its complaint.
The university faced a backlash over its handling of the matter with critics arguing that satire is free speech protected by the First Amendment.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) sent Stanford an email this week calling on it to 'immediately abandon' its investigation and saying that 'no reasonable person' would believe the flier to be real.
After backing down over the probe, Stanford said it is reviewing its policy but insisted it was following procedures with the launch of the investigation.
'We followed our normal procedures and conducted a factual inquiry. Given that this complaint raised issues of protected speech, we also consulted with legal counsel after we obtained the relevant facts,' a spokesperson told DailyMail.com in a statement.
'In cases where the complaint is filed in proximity to graduation, our normal procedure includes placing a graduation diploma hold on the respondent.'
The school said the complaint had been'resolved as expeditiously as possible.'
'We will continue to review policies and practices relating to these to ensure ongoing compliance,' the statement added.
'We are also reviewing procedures for placing holds on student accounts in judicial cases in close proximity to graduation to ensure that holds are limited to cases for which the outcome could be serious enough to affect the timing of degree conferral.'
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