State University Professor Prevails in Speech Retaliation Appeal

University of Washington officials illegally retaliated against a computer-science professor for mocking the school’s formal pronouncement that its campus sits on “occupied” land of the Suquamish, Tulalip, and Muckleshoot nations, a divided Ninth Circuit ruled.

Stuart Reges reacted to the university’s recommendation that professors include a land acknowledgment in their course syllabi by including a “parody” land acknowledgment that disputed the Coast Salish peoples’ claim on most of the land occupied by the university. UW later received a bevy of student complaints.

Reges was investigated, reprimanded, and threatened with future discipline after he refused to remove it, which violated the ...