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November 12, 2010
U.S. Court Ducks AcademicFreedom Debate in Ruling
Against California Professor
By Peter Schmidt
A federal appeals court has ruled against an emeritus professor who had accused the University
of California at Irvine of trampling his free-speech rights, but the court did not take up the tough
First Amendment questions that attracted national attention to his case.
In a terse, four-page decision issued on Friday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Ninth Circuit said the various university leaders named as defendants in the lawsuit were
shielded from its legal claims under the 11th Amendment, which has been interpreted as granting
sovereign immunity to state officials. Most Popular
Mr. Hong alleged in his lawsuit that he had been denied a merit salary increase in 2004 because 5. U.S. Court Ducks Academic-Freedom Debate in
Ruling Against California Professor
he had criticized the hiring and promotion decisions within his department at Irvine and had
voiced concern about its reliance on part-time lecturers to teach lower-division classes. A U.S.
District Court held in 2007 that Mr. Hong was not entitled to First Amendment protection for
Past Coverage
such speech because he had made the statements at issue in his capacity as a state employee.
Professors' Freedoms Under Assault in the Courts -
Shadow of a Past Decision February 27, 2009
In ruling against Mr. Hong, the district court cited a 2006 U.S. Supreme Court decision, in the Court Broadly Defines Job-Related Speech in Upholding
case Garcetti v. Ceballos, which held that public agencies can discipline their employees for any Delaware Professor's Dismissal - March 30, 2009
speech made in connection with their jobs. That case involved a deputy district attorney, and the Court Broadly Defines Job-Related Speech in Upholding
Delaware Professor's Dismissal - March 30, 2009
Supreme Court explicitly put aside the question of whether its logic would apply to speech made
AAUP Announces Effort to Shore Up Academic Freedom
in an academic setting as well. Nevertheless, federal courts have applied the Garcetti ruling to at Public Colleges - November 10, 2009
several cases involving college faculty members, causing alarm among free-speech advocates Professors Try to Shore Up Speech Protections
who believe that letting colleges discipline faculty members over much work-related speech Undermined by Courts - June 21, 2010
threatens academic freedom.
Cornelius V anderbilt had a
1 . 1 207 1 647 - Nov ember 1 2, 201 0 at 05:1 6 pm v ision of a place that would
"contribute to strengthening
the ties that should ex ist
"it is far from clearly established today , much less in 2004 when the univ ersity officers
between all sections of our
v oted on Mr. Hong's merit increase, that univ ersity professors hav e a First Amendment
common country " when he gav e $1 million to
right to comment on faculty administrativ e matters without retaliation."
create a univ ersity in 1 87 3. Today , that v ision has
been...
So much for faculty gov ernance at any public univ ersity .
View Cam pus Viewpoint
Is it not clear from the FSU case reported recently in the Chronicle? There an arbitrator
found that the administrators had acted arbitrarily and capriciously when they fired some
Anthropology professors based on fabricated "cost cutting" rationale when the real reason
was because the prov ost had a personal history with the anthro. dept. If it were not for the
fact that some of those FSU professors were unionized, the administration would hav e
gotten away with it. Then they rehired the non-unionized professors because they didn't
want to look like the jerks they were being and didn't want to be sued in court for
differential treatment. The union was the only thing that changed this situation and
protected faculty .
Come on faculty (and students), wake up!
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