University stung by jury verdict over religious retaliation
As atheist, prof got accolades ...
as Christian, investigations
Mike Adams
A jury in North Carolina has decided that a university
retaliated against a professor who got accolades from colleagues when, as an atheist,
he was hired, but then faced retaliation when he became a Christian.
The damages for Mike Adams, a
criminology professor at the University
of North Carolina-Wilmington, will be determined later.
But officials from two major legal
teams, the Alliance Defending Freedom and the American Center
for Law and Justice, agreed it was a significant finding.
ADF represented Adams
together with lead counsel David French, who began the case with ADF and now
litigates for the ACLJ.
A former atheist, Adams frequently
received praise from his colleagues after the university hired him as an
assistant professor in 1993 and promoted him to associate professor in 1998.
But some of his views on political
and social issues soon reflected his adoption of Christianity in 2000, and the
legal teams reported subsequently, the university subjected Adams to a campaign
of academic persecution, including intrusive investigations, baseless
accusations and other factors that culminated in his denial of promotion to
full professor, despite an award-winning record of teaching, research, and
service.
In his lawsuit against the
university, attorneys argued that officials denied him a deserved promotion
because they disagreed with the content of his nationally syndicated opinion columns
that espoused religious and political views contrary to the opinions held by
university officials.
Named as defendants were the
school and its trustees and a multitude of other school officials, including a
dean, Stephen McNamee, and chancellor, Gary Miller.
The jury simply said “Yes” when
asked “Was the plaintiff’s speech activity a substantial or motivating factor
in the defendants’ decision to not promote” Adams.
The jury also found that the
defendants would not have made the same decision “in the absence of plaintiffs’
speech activity.”
“We are grateful that the jury
today reaffirmed the fundamental principle that universities are a marketplace
of ideas, not a place where professors face retaliation for having a different
view than university officials,” said ADF Litigation Staff Counsel Travis
Barham, who participated in the trial this week. “As the jury decided,
disagreeing with an accomplished professor’s religious and political views is
no grounds for denying him a promotion.”
“The jury saw what we have long
known to be true about the wrong done to Dr. Adams,” said Senior Legal Counsel
David Hacker. “The verdict is a powerful message for academic freedom and free
speech at America’s
public universities.”
“We’re grateful the jury
determined what we have long known to be true – that the university violated
Dr. Adams’ constitutional rights when it denied his promotion,” said French,
ACLJ senior counsel. “This is an important victory for academic freedom and the
First Amendment.”
The case took an extended trip,
detouring to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit for a ruling in 2011
that said, “no individual loses his ability to speak as a private citizen by
virtue of public employment…. Adams’ columns
addressed topics such as academic freedom, civil rights, campus culture, sex,
feminism, abortion, homosexuality, religion, and morality. Such topics plainly
touched on issues of public, rather than private, concern.”
Adams had a novel way of making his point, as WND reported a
year ago.
For example, in his Townhall.com
column at that time, he poked fun at the idea a university should exclude a
Chick-fil-A restaurant from its property because of pro-family views of the
company’s owner.
Such exclusion, which Adams described as “queer reasoning,” would make the
university more “inclusive,” campaigners apparently believed.
“I’ve been thinking about it, and
I’ve decided that our LGBTQIA Office here on my campus makes me feel
uncomfortable. In fact, the rainbow is a symbol of hate. So, next week, I plan
to introduce a resolution to ban them from campus,” he wrote. “I expect the
resolution to be defeated because it is idiotic. I’m just hoping I get a
special office as a consolation prize – simply for being a narrow minded
bigot.”
Lawyers reported when Adams was
denied promotion in 2006, he had “multiple awards and rave reviews from
students for his teaching, he had published more peer-reviewed articles than
all but two of his colleagues, and he had a distinguished record of service
both on and off campus, culminating in earning UNCW’s highest service award.”
According to William Creeley,
writing on the website of the the Foundation for Individual Rights in
Education, the case raised concerns.
“While the government as employer
may reasonably expect a significant amount of control over the public speech of
district attorneys, that same amount of control over the scholarly research and
teaching of public university faculty members is inappropriate and amounts to
an infringement on academic freedom.”
University
of North Carolina
Erskine B. Bowles
was the president for the University of
North Carolina System, and is a trustee at the Urban Institute (think tank).
Note: Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Urban Institute (think tank), and Brookings Institution (think
tank).
George
Soros was the chairman for the Foundation
to Promote Open Society, and Julian
H. Robertson Jr. was an invited to 2013 wedding reception.
Julian H.
Robertson Jr. was an invited to George
Soros’s 2013 wedding reception, his lobby firm was Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, and his sister is Wyndham Robertson.
Wyndham
Robertson is Julian H. Robertson Jr’s
sister, and was a VP for the University
of North Carolina System.
Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is a senior
counsel for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer
& Feld, LLP, a life trustee
at the Urban Institute (think tank),
an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), Valerie B. Jarrett’s great uncle, a
director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg
conference participant (think tank).
Lee
H. Hamilton is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think
tank), and a member of the Homeland
Security Advisory Council.
Patrick L. McCrory
is a member of the Homeland Security
Advisory Council, the governor for the North Carolina state government, and the Charlotte (NC) mayor.
Cyrus F.
Freidheim Jr. is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Valerie B. Jarrett
is a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, is Vernon
E. Jordan Jr’s great niece, and the senior adviser for the Barack Obama administration.
Robert
L. Gibbs was the press secretary for the Barack Obama administration, and his press secretary was Bobby R. Etheridge.
Bobby R. Etheridge
was a Robert L. Gibbs’s press
secretary, and the state superintendent of schools for the State of North Carolina.
No comments:
Post a Comment