Posted on 04/01/2009 7:21:44 PM PDT by freespirited
After a four-week trial, a jury in Denver is deliberating the case of Ward L. Churchill, a former University of Colorado professor who says he was fired because of an essay he wrote in which he called victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks “little Eichmanns.”
The university says Mr. Churchill plagiarized and falsified parts of his academic research, particularly on American Indians, and cited this as grounds for his dismissal in July 2007. Mr. Churchill brought a wrongful termination suit against the university, seeking monetary damages for lost wages and harm to his reputation. He also wants to be reinstated to his job teaching ethnic studies.
The case is seen as a struggle between freedom of speech and academic integrity, and it has revived the longstanding debate about whether hate speech deserves protection by the First Amendment...
Ken McConnellogue, a spokesman for the university, said the university’s case was “nuanced” and “perhaps doesn’t translate as well as a sound-bite case.” Still, he said, “We believe we’ve put on a compelling case” that officials fired Mr. Churchill for inferior scholarship, not his 9/11 essay...
Throughout the trial, the university maintained that it fired Mr. Churchill solely “for his research misconduct, for taking other people’s work and making it his own, for fabricating research, for falsifying research,” as Steven K. Bosley, a university regent, told the court.
“It was not one time, not even one time on purpose,” Mr. Bosley added. “It was a pattern of misconduct.”
The jury got the case Wednesday afternoon, after hearing closing arguments. If the jury sides with Mr. Churchill, it will set the damages, although the judge, Larry J. Naves, can modify the amount. Judge Naves will decide whether Mr. Churchill should be reinstated.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I won't predict what the jury will do, but I can't believe any judge would reinstate Churchill. Not even a liberal loon.
O’bama addresses the graduating class as new Dean Nell Jessup Newton comes on board. She also happens to be a big fan of Ward “I’m an Indian” Churchill;
She is the editor-in-chief of Cohen’s Handbook of Federal Indian Law, the only treatise on the subject:
“Cohen’s Handbook of Federal Indian Law (1982) has canonical stature, but it is organized for lawyers who want questions answered.[1] Ward Churchill’s works bubble with the anger appropriate to the subject, but offer little that could be successfully taken into a courtroom unless the object is a contempt sentence.”
If the jury finds in the plaintiff's favor, and the judge finds that reinstatement is not appropriate, the judge may award the plaintiff future pay -- lost wages extending sometime into the future.
Too bad the jury cannot order Churchill banished to a deserted island with no phone or internet.
So long as he doesn’t get banished to a reservation. ;) I wouldn’t want him.
Even if he never gets reinstated, I’m sure someone out there wants a lying propagandist.
Me too. He has a bright future doling out grant money for Soros.
You mean because he’s a fake Indian?
He’s not a native-American is he?
Just a wanna be, from what I understand.
Good. The U of C should never have hired him (and probably more like him) in the first place.
Now it is up to parents and the Alum to make the University pay for it’s mistake.
And the jury just awarded him his job back and $1. Great, F US.
Are you sure? I thought that it’s up to the judge whether he gets his job back.
From the NYT:
Whether Mr. Churchill, 61, will get his job back, and when, was not resolved. Mr. Churchill’s lawyers said they would ask Judge Larry J. Naves of Denver District Court to order reinstatement, in light of the verdict.A spokesman for the university, Ken McConnellogue, said administrators would oppose the request. Reinstatement, Mr. McConnellogue said, would probably draw a sharp reaction among many faculty members, because a faculty committee was instrumental in his firing.
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