A number of questions have arisen since the University of Illinois rescinded a job offer to Steven Salaita, formerly a professor of English at Virginia Tech.

After mean-spirited, even vicious tweets surfaced in which Salaita attacked Israel’s policies and people, the chancellor rescinded the agreement with Salaita. The agreement had reached the final stages and was awaiting the trustees’ approval (pretty much a rubber stamp these days). Salaita had resigned his other post.

On the Pope Center site George Leef lays out the issues and reports some of the surprising reactions. (Cary Nelson, former president of the American Association of University Professors, defended the university, for example.)

Leef’s major point is that freedom of contract is a right, just as is freedom of speech. He writes:

I am a fervent defender of the First Amendment, but I think that extending the prohibition against governmental infringement with freedom of speech to the point where it interferes with the contractual decisions of public colleges and universities is a mistake.