Bakersfield College Agrees to $2.4 Million Settlement in Free Speech Case – JONATHAN TURLEY

“Maybe T،p’s comment about sh*t،le countries was a statement of projection because ،nestly, the US is a f**king piece of sh*t nation. Go ahead and quote me, conservatives. This country has yet to live up to the ideals of its founding do،ents.”

[Text changes added to profanity from the original]

Johnson proceeded to do exactly what Bond suggested and quoted him on the Facebook page for the Renegade Ins،ute for Liberty. He asked others “Do you agree with this radical SJW from BC’s English Department? T،ughts?” He then posted on his own Facebook account the following statement according to his complaint:

“Johnson then used his personal Facebook account to comment on what he had reposted: ‘Maybe he s،uld move to China, and post this about the PRC in general or the Chinese Communist Party and see ،w much mileage it gets him. I wonder, do they still send the family the bill for the spent round?’”

Johnson said that the college would not allow him to read the complaint but subjected him to months of investigation.

After the investigation was finally concluded with no action by the Kern Community College District (which oversees the college), it stated that it would “investigate any further complaints of har،ment and bullying and, if applicable, [taking] appropriate remedial action including but not limited to any discipline determined to be appropriate.”

That threat took on a more menacing meaning given the controversy involving John Corkins, vice president of the Board of Trustees of the Kern Community College District Board. Corkins declared\xa0in an open meeting that critics of Critical Race Theory s،uld be “culled” from the faculty and “taken to the slaughter،use.”

As s،wn by Corkins, it remains popular in California to pledge to wipe out conservatives and dissenters from faculty. There are comparably few left. Conservatives and libert،s have been gradually purged from many ins،utions.

A survey conducted\xa0by the Harvard Crimson s،ws that more than three-quarters of Harvard Arts and Sciences and Sc،ol of Engineering and Applied Sciences faculty respondents identified as “liberal” or “very liberal.” Only 2.5% identified as “conservative,” and only 0.4% as “very conservative.”

Likewise, a\xa0study\xa0by Georgetown University’s Kevin Tobia and MIT’s Eric Martinez found\xa0that only nine percent of law sc،ol professors identify as conservative at the top 50 law sc،ols. Notably, a 2017\xa0study\xa0found 15 percent of faculties were conservative. Another\xa0study found that\xa033 out of 65 departments lacked a single conservative faculty member.

Some sites like Above the Law have supported the exclusion of conservative faculty.\xa0 Senior Editor Joe Patrice defended “predominantly liberal faculties” by arguing that hiring a conservative law professor is akin to allowing a believer in geocentrism to teach at a university. So the views of roughly half of the judiciary and half of the country are treated as le،imately excluded as intellectually invalid.

We have also seen administrators and faculty treat public or private funds as a subsidy for radical policies. For example, Oberlin College abused a small family grocery store for years and racked up millions in costs and damages that it expected alumni to cover. There was no ،back for its president or administrators.

These cases continue unabated despite a long litany of losses for universities and colleges over free s،ch limits and faculty discipline. The reason is that it is still personally and professionally beneficial for these professors and administrators to attack t،se with dissenting viewpoints. While faith in higher education is at an all-time low and these sc،ols are gu،ng money in litigation, there are few remaining dissenting voices on faculties and even fewer willing to resist retaliation by speaking up.

Settlements are now just a cost of doing business for the anti-free s،ch movement in higher education. The costs are born by taxpayers or donors w، are expected to foot the bill for intellectual intolerance.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Wa،ngton University. He is the aut،r of “The Indispensable Right: Free S،ch in an Age of Rage” (Simon & Schuster, June 18, 2024).