On the whole, American courts have been pretty good about upholding freedom of speech for college professors. But not always. In a recent decision, the First Amendment took a serious loss.
Professor Stephen Porter of North Carolina State is a tenured member in the graduate school of education. Quite remarkably, he doesn’t think his field should become just a propaganda mill for leftist notions about diversity and social justice, but instead actually study what works in education. Over a number of years, he said some things that got under the skin of his superiors. The end result was a demotion that left him with very little opportunity to interact with students. So he filed suit against NC State.
The university defended its action, saying that Porter’s speech was “uncollegial” and therefore not protected under the First Amendment — and also that he hadn’t proved that there was a connection between his speech and the demotion. The trial judge bought that and dismissed the case. Porter appealed to the Fourth Circuit.
The Fourth Circuit split, with two Dem-appointed judges ruling in favor of the dismissal and the GOP-appointed judge tearing apart their reasoning. I write about the case and why it matters in today’s Martin Center article.