Professors Lose Speech Suit Over Flyer Labeling Colleague Racist

Two Tennessee Technological University professors who were disciplined after posting flyers on campus calling another professor racist for advising a Turning Point USA student chapter had their free speech retaliation and due process case dismissed.

The professor on the flyer was “so unfazed” that he appeared on the television show Fox & Friends following the incident. But the university reasonably believed that lack of disciplinary action would diminish its obligation to protect all students’ freedom of speech, the US District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee held.

Julia Gruber and Andrew Smith placed flyers throughout campus in 2021 that ...