Hours before it was scheduled to take place, Project 2025 author Kevin Roberts canceled his controversial speaking event at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law in Baltimore.

The Monday night visit, organized by the Republican Law Society, was the subject of student outcry, counter-events and even a scheduled protest outside the law school building downtown. Though some students and university officials said the event would reinforce freedom of speech, it drew criticism from those who oppose Roberts’ stances on marriage equality and abortion access.

Roberts canceled his talk due to an illness, according to a spokesperson for the law school, and it’s unclear whether it’ll be rescheduled.

The Republican figure is the president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, and widely considered the mastermind of Project 2025. The 900-page plan pushes for the firing of federal employees, placing limits on the National Institutes of Health and cracking down on immigration.

But those views are important to have on campus, said the law school’s dean, Renée Hutchins Laurent.

“I am proud that our student groups are planning programs that promote diversity of thought and interrogate current legal and policy issues,” Hutchins Laurent wrote in a statement before Roberts canceled. “It is crucial that we uphold the right to free speech, even when faced with speech we find deeply offensive.”

The dean added that “now more than ever, we must do all we can to maintain the guardrails of democracy, including free expression,” and noted that the law school is “steadfastly committed to fostering an inclusive community in which all members feel a sense of belonging unhampered by historic vestiges of discrimination.”

Third-year law student Britany Askin, on the other hand, said the decision to host Roberts goes against what she thought were the school’s values.

“It doesn’t really embody the spirit of what our law school tries to advocate for and embrace in the spirit of bipartisanship,” said Askin, co-president of the University of Maryland Law Democrats. “This is a far extreme that doesn’t align with any value that we share or that we think our law school shares.”

Askin said she was reluctant to be on campus while the event was occurring because of her “personal discomfort even knowing that someone with those views are in my proximity.” Her group is also helping to organize a counter-event with OutLaw, a student group at the law school that supports LGBTQIA+ students.

Angel Vergona, a third-year law student and co-president of OutLaw, said that she was initially shocked when she found out that Roberts was going to be on campus. Then, after a few minutes, she pivoted: “I thought, ‘What are we going to do about it?’”

The counter-event, which features lawyers from the National Women’s Law Center and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, will discuss Project 2025 and “critical resistance to fascism and authoritarianism.”

Though Roberts is no longer going to speak on Monday evening, Vergona said OutLaw’s event was still taking place.

“Our event, and the space it’s creating for conversation that’s critical of Project 2025, is just as important as the canceled event,” Vergona said, noting that the group received 50 ticket registrations in the first 24 hours after the event was announced.

Despite the controversy, the Republican Law Society said in a statement that its members were “proud” to host Roberts and thanked the law school’s administration and faculty for supporting the event.

“This is not an endorsement of any speaker or any views, but rather an attempt to bring interesting and prominent speakers from across the political spectrum to campus,” the group wrote. “We hope this gives our student body, future lawyers, an opportunity to hear a range of perspectives.”

Academic freedom has become a hot topic on college campuses in recent years.

“Universities love to preach about being marketplaces of ideas — until a conservative shows up," Crystal Bonham, a spokesperson for the Heritage Foundation said in a statement.

“The fact that some students would rather shut down a speech than engage in actual debate tells you everything you need to know about the state of higher education,” she said. “If these institutions really cared about academic freedom, they’d welcome different perspectives instead of running scared from them.”

Members of Law Democrats and OutLaw said their counter events weren’t intended to censor Roberts’ talk, and faculty haven’t pushed back.

“I think the biggest value at any academic institution is academic freedom and freedom of speech,” said Ward Morrow, a professor at the Carey law school. “I welcome having folks come that some disagree with, and hear what they have to say and challenge them.”

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