As Biden gives commencement address, Columbia Law faculty who opposed Kavanaugh downplay Tara Reade accusations

Columbia Law School was essentially united in opposition to Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation in 2018 -- as the university established a new, mandatory sexual misconduct education initiative, dozens of faculty members signed a petition in The New York Times saying the nominee's "temperament" alone was disqualifying, and students staged round-the-clock protests.

Now, as Joe Biden prepares to deliver a virtual commencement address at Columbia Law School on Wednesday, he also stands accused of sexual assault (which he, too, adamantly denies) along with previously reported incidents of inappropriate touching. The once-vocal advocates for women's rights and the "Me Too" movement at New York City's only Ivy League law school, though, have a starkly different view toward Biden.

Instead, the Columbia Law School's dean, Gillian Lester, issued a statement praising Biden for setting an "example" as a "leader, lawyer, and public servant." Asked to explain the change in tone on campus, the law school's press office declined to comment to Fox News.

However, in one-on-one interviews with Fox News, several Columbia Law School faculty members made clear the topic was a sensitive one -- and that they had no intention of criticizing the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

Avery W. Katz, formerly a vice dean at the law school whom Columbia currently bills as a "Professor of Organizational Character," lashed out when Fox News pointed out that he signed the open letter in the Times calling for Kavanaugh's nomination to be pulled in 2018 amid sexual assault allegations. Asked whether he would object to Biden's appearance at the university, Katz responded that the question "didn't sound like a genuine inquiry" and seemed "argumentative."

Katz then separately emailed two senior Fox News executives to complain that the request for comment he received, as well as one clarifying email, amounted to "multiple trolling messages ... under the pretext of a journalistic inquiry."