Study of Law and Political Economy at Yale (LPE Yale) is an academic center housed within Yale Law School that hosts events promoting left-of-center economic and social policies through hosting events and conferences. The center’s events focus on topics including race, immigration, LGBT issues, and colonialism.” ^{1 2 3}

In 2025, the Deputy Director of LPE Yale, Helyeh Doutaghi, was suspended from her position and banned from the Yale campus over her affiliation with Samidoun, an organization sanctioned by the U.S. government as a “sham charity” and a “front organization” for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a designated foreign terrorist organization. ^{4 5}

Background

Law and Political Economy at Yale began in 2017 following the 2016 election of President Donald Trump. The study of “Law and Political Economy” was an academic movement started in several law schools intended to counter what it claimed was a “neoliberal” worldview while pushing back on  “the influence of law and economics in law and regulation and a retrenchment of redistributionist policies.” Lina Khan, later the Chair of the Federal Trade Commission under President Joe Biden, was an early supporter of the LPE movement while still a student at Yale Law School. ⁶

In 2023, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation provided a $600,000 grant to LPE at Yale. The description for the grant criticized “neoliberal” thinkers such as Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman, stating that “it is through the co-opting of legal scholarship, doctrine, and practice that neoliberal concepts have had their most far-reaching effects.” The grant further stated that “Its objective is to develop LPE into a wide-ranging shift that will change the way law is studied and taught, the public discussion of legal and political institutions and power, and law’s role in policymaking and political mobilization.” ⁷

Activity

Law and Political Economy at Yale has hosted several conferences and events that promote left-of-center academic works on economic and social issues. It has hosted Dean Spade, described as a professor who “has been working to build queer and trans liberation based in racial and economic justice for the past two decades,” and “Marbré Stahly-Butts, a professor of law at CUNY, to discuss her work as co-founder and former Executive Director of Law for Black Lives.” ²

Controversy

In March 2025, the Deputy Director of Law and Political Economy at Yale, Helyeh Doutaghi, was suspended from her position and banned from the Yale campus over her affiliation with Samidoun, an organization sanctioned by the U.S. government as a “sham charity” and a “front organization” for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a designated foreign terrorist organization. ^{4 5}

Having first joined the center in 2023, Doutaghi’s affiliation was first reported by media site Jewish Onliner. The New York Times reported that initially, LPE at Yale “appeared to embrace Dr. Doutaghi’s views, featuring her last year in a virtual event titled, ‘A Political Economy of Genocide and Imperialism.’” ⁴ The page describing the event had been scrubbed from the project website. Following her dismissal, Doutaghi released a statement claiming, “ [t]his is the type of thing that happens under fascist dictatorships, which Donald Trump is trying to establish.” ⁴

1. Paul H. Rosenberg. X post. March 3, 2024. https://x.com/PaulHRosenberg/status/1764354057131753553
2. “The Study of Law & Political Economy at Yale.” Yale Law School. Accessed March 18, 2025. https://law.yale.edu/centers-and-workshops/study-law-political-economy-yale
3. Rosenberg, Paul. “Today’s Supreme Court is a threat to democracy — but activists plan to fight back.” Salon. March 3, 2024. Accessed March 18, 2025. https://www.salon.com/2024/03/03/todays-is-a-to-democracy–but-activists-plan-to-fight-back/
4. Saul, Stephanie. “Yale Suspends Scholar After A.I.-Powered News Site Accuses Her of Terrorist Link.” New York Times. March 12, 2025. Accessed March 18, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/12/us/yale-suspends-scholar-terrorism.html
5. Johnson, Eliana. “Yale Law School Scholar Is Member of US-Sanctioned Terror Fundraising Organization.” Washington Free Beacon. March 4, 2025. Accessed March 18, 2025.  https://freebeacon.com/campus/yale-law-school-scholar-is-member-of-u-s-sanctioned-terrorist-fundraising-organization/
6. Zywicki, Todd. “The Law and Political Economy Project: A Critical Analysis.” George Mason Law & Economics Research Paper No. 24-12. May 21, 2024. Accessed March 18, 2025.  https://laweconcenter.org/resources/the-law-and-political-economy-project-a-critical-analysis/
7. “Yale University for The Law And Political Economy Project At Yale Law School.” William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Accessed March 18, 2025. https://hewlett.org/grants/yale-university-for-the-law-and-political-economy-project-at-yale-law-school/