Overview
- The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that University of Washington officials retaliated against computer science professor Stuart Reges for protected speech in his syllabus.
- Writing for the court, Judge Daniel Bress said student discomfort with a professor’s views is not a lawful basis for university punishment.
- Reges’s syllabus included a parody of the university’s model land acknowledgment stating that, by the labor theory of property, local tribes could claim historical ownership of almost none of the campus land.
- University actions included asking him to remove the statement, deleting it without his consent, opening a months-long harassment investigation, and creating a competing class to divert students.
- The ruling reverses the district court and remands the case to determine appropriate remedies, with Reges represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.