In recent years, part of the leftist playbook has been to get rid of faculty members who don’t agree with the “progressive” agenda of transforming America. They use “diversity” statements to sift out anyone who isn’t on their team and, for those who are already on the faculty, sanctions for saying or writing things that upset their sensibilities.
Fortunately, there is still life in the constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech, and when faculty members are fired or sanctioned for their speech, the courts usually take their side. In today’s Martin Center article, I discuss two cases in which the court hit the institution with serious damages and one case that has just been filed.
The two cases that have been decided involve Auburn and the University of North Texas. The former went to the jury and resulted in a hefty award to the plaintiff of $645,000, including half a million in punitive damages. In the latter, the university decided to settle before the case went that far and escaped with damages of only $165,000.
But in neither did the actors themselves have to bear any of the cost for their illegal conduct. State legislation is needed to stop college officials from trampling on the First Amendment and then watching the taxpayers clean up their mess.
The new case is in North Carolina, where a veteran professor at the North Carolina Governor’s School was terminated because the administrators didn’t like his politics. For years, David Phillips had taught without any complaint and had received excellent performance reviews, but in 2021, “woke” students (and other school personnel) took umbrage at his opposition to leftist beliefs. Without following any of the school’s policies, Phillips was summarily terminated.
How will the officials respond?