Court sides with U. Pittsburgh professor demoted for criticizing affirmative action

TheCollegeFix ^ | 7/16/26 | Gabriel Sison

[CFW]

Third Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated medical professor’s case after judge threw out defamation claims

A federal appeals court reinstated a medical professor’s defamation and civil rights retaliation case against the University of Pittsburgh last week over an article he wrote criticizing affirmative action.

“I have devoted my career to caring for patients, training the next generation of physicians, and contributing to scholarship within my field. When I published this article, I was doing the same thing,” Dr. Norman Wang said in a statement after the ruling.

In its July 7 opinion, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals decided that a federal judge erred in dismissing most of the doctor’s claims last year. The ruling means his lawsuit can move forward.

[snip]

In 2020, Wang published an article in the Journal of American Heart Association arguing affirmative action harmed the medical academy, The Fix previously reported.

Prior to his article, he worked in the university’s medical center for nearly two decades. He was also the director for the cardiology fellowship program where he helped select and train fellows.

According to the appeals court ruling, four months after his article was published, a doctor filed a complaint against Wang on July 29, 2020.

Within a week, Wang was fired from his director position, had his article retracted, and faced a social media pressure campaign where some of his colleagues labeled him as a racist, according to court documents. Wang was also banned from any role teaching fellows, residents, or medical students.

Dr. Mark Gladwin, then chair of the medical school’s Department of Medicine, also sent out a hospital-wide email denouncing his article, according to the case. Gladwin is now the dean for the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine.

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TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: affirmationaction; dei; discrimination; university

[CFW]

Close down the university. Salt the earth so it cannot rise from the ashes.

[CFW]

Related:

“Seven years later, a campus cancel culture incident heads to trial”

https://www.thecollegefix.com/seven-years-later-a-campus-cancel-culture-incident-heads-to-trial/

“Nearly seven years ago, a campus speech hosted by conservative students featuring famed economist Arthur Laffer abruptly ended as vocal leftwing protesters interrupted his talk and campus police got involved.

Next week, a jury is scheduled to decide if that shutdown in November 2019 was a violation of students’ First Amendment and equal protection rights.

The lawsuit was filed in 2020 on behalf of Young America’s Foundation and College Republicans against the State University of New York at Binghamton administration and progressive student activists involved in the incident.”

[PGR88]

So-called “academic freedom” destroyed by the Left

Same as always throughout history.

[lee martell]

I’m trying to properly interpret this Court decision.
It can be read in several ways.

[Zathras]

Supreme Court will side with Freedom of Speech 8-1.