Carrying signs, exhorting drivers to honk, and enduring the rain, hundreds gathered outside the University of Maryland law school on Monday evening to protest one of the authors of Project 2025, a conservative plan to remake the federal government, including through firing federal workers.

Kevin Roberts, president of the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, had come to speak to a group of law students, an invitation that gave rise to a debate about whether the event would reinforce diversity of thought or spread hate on campus.

The demonstration comes as the Trump administration cracks down on universities and students over allegations of antisemitism from campus protests over the Gaza war, stripping hundreds of million in federal funds and detaining some Pro-Palestinian individuals.

One of the protest’s organizers, a law student named Wren, said they heard from some classmates who did not attend the protest because of fears about getting detained or having their visas revoked.

“It’s important to show out for people that can’t come,” they said, adding that, “Kevin Roberts is not who this law school is, and it’s not who this city is.” They declined to provide their full name for fear of being targeted by right-wing groups.

Roberts, who has likened abortion to slavery and the Holocaust and is against marriage equality, is widely considered the mastermind of Project 2025, a 900-page plan that pushes for firing federal employees, placing limits on the National Institutes of Health and cracking down on immigration. He made headlines last year for bragging about killing a dog with a shovel.

The event, which was open to the university’s law school students, was billed as a fireside chat between Roberts and University System of Maryland Regents Professor Mark Graber to “highlight the conservative perspective.”

Neither the Republican Law Society nor the Heritage Foundation responded to requests for comment.

While Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025, his administration has taken dozens of actions that align with the plan, according to a New York Times analysis. This includes the mass layoffs of government workers, affecting thousands in Maryland, which has led to multiple lawsuits.

Protesters gathered outside the Carey School of Law before the talk began at 6:30 p.m., and grew to about 250 people before thinning out shortly after 7:30 p.m. as the rain became steadier.

Still, even amid wind and lightning, a group of about 50 protesters remained outside, chanting, “Hey hey, ho ho, Kevin Roberts has got to go.”

For Ronald Maylor, a lifelong Baltimorean, coming to the protest was a no-brainer.

“We have to fight the bully,” he said with a shrug as a city bus drove by, honking in support.

While he respects academic freedom, Maylor, a University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Johns Hopkins University alum, said he felt that colleges and universities “bend over backwards to try and feel fair and balanced,” and did not support Roberts’ appearance.

Tom Cavallaro, another protester and Baltimore resident, said he didn’t want to live in fear, “walking around anxious.”

“Kevin Roberts and Project 2025 have every right to be here,” Cavallaro, whose wife, Jill Vernon, helped organize the protest, said. “But so do we.”

The talk was initially scheduled for March 3, but was canceled at the last minute due to illness.

The law school’s dean, Renée Hutchins Laurent, told The Baltimore Banner in a statement before the initial event that she was “proud that our student groups are planning programs that promote diversity of thought and interrogate current legal and policy issues” and that it was “crucial that we uphold the right to free speech, even when faced with speech we find deeply offensive.”

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