Ex-MIT Professor Accused of Harassment Can Bring Defamation Suit

A Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate student and post-doctoral fellow can’t escape a lawsuit claiming she defamed a former adviser by reporting him for sexual harassment, a panel of Massachusetts Appeals Court judges held Tuesday.

Former MIT professor David Sabatini’s claims “have a substantial basis in conduct,” Justice Andrew D’Angelo wrote. The ruling affirms a lower court’s denial of a motion to dismiss Sabatini’s claims. The panel also reinstated the former professor’s claims against his research lab, the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.

The opinion sheds light on the type of First Amendment activity that is protected under a Massachusetts ...