One of the favorite leftist tactics for undermining the legitimacy of America is the “land acknowledgement,” whereby officials wring their hands over the alleged fact that they are operating on land stolen from native peoples. Several years ago, the University of Washington suggested that faculty members ought to include such a statement on their syllabi. Of course, that statement had nothing to do with the subject matter of the course, but no matter.
When computer science professor Stuart Reges had the temerity to write a “land acknowledgement” that disagreed with the university’s wokeness, officials retaliated against him. Instead of meekly agreeing to go along with school policy, Reges sued.
In today’s Martin Center article, I examine this important case.
UW won the first round when the district court judge dismissed Reges’s case, but he appealed to the Ninth Circuit, where the majority of the three-judge panel ruled that a professor’s First Amendment right to speak his mind was more important than the university’s concerns that students might be offended and go elsewhere.
Here’s a key paragraph from the opinion:
Reges did not speak about a private grievance or personnel dispute . . . but about a matter of public concern both within the UW community and more broadly. He included a parody land acknowledgement in his syllabus to comment on the propriety of land acknowledgements . . . and to question the factual basis for UW’s land acknowledgement. Reges also sought to situate land acknowledgements within a broad “agenda of diversity, equity, and inclusion,” which he opposes. [. . .] Reges’s speech, however misguided one might regard it, was core political speech that merits the highest First Amendment protection.
Congrats to Professor Reges for standing his ground and to FIRE for its expert litigation team that fought to uphold freedom of speech.
Unfortunately, the university will continue pushing “land acknowledgements,” and the intolerant officials responsible for the attack on Reges suffer no adverse consequences.