Michael W. McConnell, Richard and Frances Mallery Professor of Law at the Stanford Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School, during the 2009 Federalist Society Annual Lawyers Convention. Nov. 13, 2009.

For the second time this academic year, black students at Stanford Law School are condemning the use of a racial slur by faculty in the classroom.

Last week, professor Michael McConnell—a former federal appellate judge and co-chair of Facebook's new content moderation oversight board—read a quote attributed to Patrick Henry that contained the "N-word" in his class on the creation of the Constitution. That incident comes just seven months after a Stanford history professor was criticized by students for using the same epithet during a guest lecture in a torts class at the law school.

Condemnation from students and fellow faculty over McConnell's decision to include the quote, which he said he used to illustrate how some Southerners use racism to stoke opposition to the Constitution, was swift. (Fellow Stanford Law professor Michele Dauber has questioned the veracity of the quote at issue.) The Black Law Students Association sent a message to the law school, noting the particularly painful timing of the incident giving the recent police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the killing of an unarmed Ahmaud Arbery by several white men.

"If there is one thing black students know, it's our own history," reads the BLSA statement. "Ahmaud Arbery is our history. Breonna Taylor is our history. George Floyd is our history. White men refusing to stop saying [the N-word] is our history."

Law dean Jenny Martinez released her own statement May 29, saying she does not believe the pedagogical aim of including the quote in class justified "the pain and distress that this epithet, which evokes the horrors of white supremacy, inflicts on students, especially students of color." She followed that up with a second email May 31 saying that she has asked the faculty to vote on a new requirement that all professors who teach a 1L course undergo classroom management training that includes instruction on diversity and inclusion.

"Sadly, over the past days students have shared privately with me their experiences of other troubling classroom experiences," Martinez wrote. "I take seriously every single incident and concern, and also believe we need systemic reform."

Both Martinez and McConnell declined interview requests Monday, referring to their public statements on the matter. McConnell wrote his own email to the law school May 29, two days after he read the quote in class, saying that will not use it in future classes after hearing the reaction from students.

"First, I hope everyone can understand that I made the pedagogical choice with good will—with the intention of teaching the history of our founding honestly," he wrote. "Second, in light of the pain and upset that this has caused many students, whom I care deeply about, I will not use the word again in the future."

The Black Law Students Association wrote to the school in November, after the November "N-word" incident, calling for the school to condemn the use of the slur and hold a faculty workshop on diversity and inclusion, among other things.

"As we have noted in our communications and meetings with the dean, this is only a start of what we want to see from the law school," according to a Monday statement from association co-presidents Aryn Frazier and Donovan Hicks. "We demand that [the law school]  go further, and take a holistic and systemic approach to racial equity. [The law school] must formalize how it addresses bias-related incidents, better contextualize the law we learn by addressing race and class in the doctrine, and provide sufficient funding to its most marginalized and disadvantaged students."

McConnell has been on the faculty of the law school since 2009, and sat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit for seven years before moving into the legal academy. Last month he was named a co-chair of the newly formed Facebook Oversight Board, which will make final decisions about content moderation for the social media giant.