A free speech row has erupted in Oregon after a woke university blocked a professor online for quoting the Declaration of Independence.
Dr Bruce Gilley, a political scientist and climate change researcher, was ‘blocked’ on X by the University of Oregon after he posted ‘all men are created equal.’
Dr Gilley — who is employed by Portland State University — was responding to a post by the college which encouraged people to ‘interrupt racism.’
In response, he filed a lawsuit claiming the University of Oregon had violated his First Amendment Rights.
The university un-blocked him after 60 days, but federal judges allowed the case to proceed — saying the professor raised legitimate claims that the university had violated his free speech rights, given it is a state-funded, public institution.
The two parties have now reached an out-of-court settlement, revealed this month, that sees the University of Oregon pay out more than $730,000 and update its social media policy.
Under the agreement, the University of Oregon will pay $191,000 to Dr Gilley to cover his legal costs and another $533,000 to cover its own legal costs.
Its social media policy will now also include guidelines for staff to avoid ‘viewpoint-based censorship’ and create and appeals process for those who believe they have been blocked by the university unfairly.
Dr Bruce Gilley, pictured above, filed the lawsuit after he was blocked by the university
Institute for Free Speech Senior Attorney Del Kolde, who worked on the case, heralded the fee award as a ‘vindication’ of fundamental constitutional rights.
‘The university made a costly decision to prioritize DEI principles over constitutional principles,’ he said.
‘[They] aggressively litigated this case for nearly three years rather than acknowledging the obvious — that blocking someone for quoting the Declaration of Independence violates the First Amendment.’
As part of the deal, the University of Oregon has said it ‘does not admit liability and believes it would have prevailed if the parties litigated to conclusion’.
The dispute broke out in June 2022 after the University’s Equity and Inclusion account — @UOEquity — posted a ‘racism interrupter’ tool designed to help people respond to remarks that they consider to be racist or offensive.
It suggested that to ‘interrupt racism’ someone should say: ‘It sounded like you just said____. Is that really what you meant?’
Dr Gilley quote-tweeted their post, and added the response: ‘My entry: …you just said “all men are created equal”.’
He was shortly afterward blocked by the university staffer who ran the account, Tova Stabin — who identifies online as a ‘Ashkenazi lesbian feminist’.
In August, Dr Gilley filed a lawsuit against the university — seeking a temporary restraining order and $17.91 in nominal damages.
Individuals generally cannot be sued for blocking people on X because this is seen as a private action, but public institutions can be.
The university tried to have the case dismissed, but a federal judge rejected its claim in February 2023, saying the professor raised legitimate claims that the 60-day blocking violated his free speech rights.
Above shows the tweet from the University’s Equity and Inclusion account, and the response from Bruce Gilley that led to him being blocked
An appeals court allowed his preliminary injunction request in March 2024, saying the university had not shown that the conduct could not reasonably be expected to occur again.
The case was later dismissed after the two parties agreed to reach a negotiated settlement.
Stabin resigned from the university shortly before the lawsuit was filed, with internal records released in the case showing that other staff members urged her to unblock Dr Gilley as soon as they were aware of the situation.
The University’s general counsel immediately emailed her requesting that Dr Gilley be unblocked unless he engaged in speech ‘not protected by the United States and Oregon Constitutions’.
The University’s communications department also sent an email to staff reinforcing that ‘”viewpoint discrimination” isn’t permitted when managing social media accounts.’
Its equity and inclusion account has 823 followers online, and was last posted in August 2022 shortly after the lawsuit was filed.
According to court documents, Dr Gilley is a critic of diversity, equity and inclusion principles because he ‘believes that DEI calls for discrimination against university faculty, students, and applicants who are not members of groups favored’.
At his university, he also ‘resists attempts’ to impose DEI on campus and previously declined to sign a ‘Black Lives Matter’ statement because it was an ‘ideological principle’.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .