Cancellings

See also Nondisclosure Clauses.

• China launches app for citizens to report anyone who has 'mistaken opinions' or 'denies the excellence of socialist culture' The app and hotline has been released ahead of party's 100th anniversary ..." (2021).

• "THE NEW PURITANS", Atlantic (2021) by Ann Applebaum is a good survey with lots of specifics about cancellings and the various effects on its victims.

Boudreau (Central Michigan, 2021)

• A FOIA request got the settlement agreement. See Volokh Conspiracy.

Prof. Boudreau, who was represented by a lawyer from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, withdrew any claims he might have against CMU, retired from CMU (he was apparently eligible for retirement), and in exchange received 10 months' salary and benefits (from Sept. 1, 2020 when he had been fired, to June 30, 2021, the end of this academic year).

5. Dr. Boudreau shall be paid in a lump sum, less normal withholding taxes the value of pay and CMU's contribution to benefits through June 30, 2021 within thirty (30) days of this settlement. A W-2 will be issued for this payment.

15. Dr. Boudreau agrees that the terms of this Release, including the payment made hereunder, are confidential and shall not be divulged to any third party except his spouse, tax advisor, CPA, wealth manager, and/or his attorneys who shall be advised of this confidentiality provision. Dr. Boudreau shall not be held liable for breach of this confidentiality clause in the event he is compelled via subpoena to under oath in court of law regarding details or terms of his severance and/or settlement agreement provided that he gives prompt notice to the CMU's General Counsel so CMU has the opportunity to object to the subpoena.

16. In the event that Dr. Boudreau violates any aspect of this Agreement, he acknowledges that said breach shall cause damage to CMU. The parties understand that CMU may have to reveal the terms pursuant to FOIA unrelated to any request by the Union or Dr. Boudreau, who agree not to make, encourage, or otherwise participate in such request.

19. Dr. Boudreau shall not, by oral or written expression or any other act of communication to any third party, by name, disparage, criticize, or impugn the reputation or character of CMU's curent or former Board of Trustees members, Board of Trustees, administrators, directors, other employees,eagents and representatives, both individually and in their official capacities (Releas6s). This provision shall not be construed to prohibit Dr. Boudreau from communicating his disagreement with CMU's decision to terminate his employment for the way he spoke various words including the "n-word", his criticism of CMU's decision and generally his beliefs and opinion on the efficacy of his teaching methods. Dr. Boudreau further agrees that this provision concerning non-disparagement is a material condition ofthe consideration contained herein, that this provision is an essential part of this Agreement, and that any violation ofthe terms ofthis paragraph shall be deemed a material breach of the entire Agreement.

21. Dr. Boudreau agrees that this Agreement shall be binding and inure to the benefit of his successors, executors, administrators, personal representatives and assigns, and to the benefit of the predecessors, successors, and assigns of the Releasees, and further agrees and acknowledges that this Agreement contains and comprises the entire agreement and understandings of the parties, and that there are no additional promises or terms of this Agreement, other than those contained within this document and the documents referenced herein.

23. If any provision of this Agreement shall for any reason be held invalid, illegal, unenforceable, or in conflict with any law governing this Agreement, the validity of the remaining portions of this Agreement shall not be affected but shall continue in full legal force and effect to the fullest extent allowed by law.

Observations:

• (1) He can talk about the incident he was fired for.
• (2) He can disparage the University, just not the various individuals who are to blame for any university scandals he may reveal.
• (3) The University and its officials are free to disparage him however much they want.
• (4) No damages are specified for breach of the clause. He is paid his settlement money within 30 days, and there are no liquidated damages. Presumably the damages would be the default of expectation damages, which in this case would be like defamation damages except he would be liable for harm caused even by truthful statements about public figures.

Amy Chua (Yale Law)

See her individual page at Amy Chua.

Trent Colbert: The Trap House Party (Yale Law)

• First Story--Washington Free Beacon

• October 13.
  • "Yale Law School’s Free Speech Blunder Bolsters the Federalist Society’s Victim Mentality," Slate, MARK JOSEPH STERN. "Yale’s move here was unwise through the lens of free speech; even if we assume the school’s intentions were pure—which is open to debate—its response was wrong, full stop."

• October 14.
  • [https://davidlat.substack.com/p/the-latest-ridiculous-controversy "The Latest (Ridiculous) Controversy

at Yale Law School 'Cancel culture' gets crazier,"] David Lat.

• A Black Student's reply

• The Daily Mail (London) storyy with pictures of Eldik and Cosgrove.

• "The Yale Law School Email Controversy: An Interview With Trent Colbert", David Lat.

• Excerpts by Volokh from the Koppelman gated Chronicle article.

• FIRE articles are October 14 and Yale's repudiation of the Woodward Report and the October 15 suggested prewritten apology for Yale to sign.

• October 18.
  • First Generation Professionals, Yale, statement against Colbert. "We appreciate Yaseen’seffort to educate Trent and repair harm within the YLS community as well as Dean Gerken’semail this morning." What email is that?

• • "Convulsions at Yale Law School: Administrators Do Damage Control as Faculty Members Slam School’s Dishonesty," Free Beacon:

...corporate legal scholar Roberta Romano, threatened to "correct the record" if the law school did not do so itself. The administration's actions toward Colbert, Romano wrote Krozner, are "in direct and total conflict with what you stated," noting that the school's diversity director had made "a sly threat" about the student's career.

"Please correct the record," she added. "I would not want to have to do it for you."

Another Yale Law professor, who asked to remain anonymous, said the initial statement was "appallingly disingenuous and full of falsehoods." Yale Law School "stated ‘no student is investigated or sanctioned for protected speech,'" the professor told the Free Beacon. "It's hard to square that statement with the Dean of Student Affairs summoning a student for questioning in response to allegations by other students, with the Diversity Director ominously warning the student that if he doesn't apologize his admission to the bar could be threatened, or with the Law School sending a message to the entire second-year class condemning the student's email as ‘racist.' If all that isn't an ‘investigation,' then it's even worse—a pronouncement of guilt without investigation."

• October 19.
  • Email from Yale Law student sparks national discussion on racism and free speech," Yale Daily News.

• • Josh Blackman at VC on moral fitness for the bar

• • Emma Perez blogpost.

To be clear, legal institutions have caused violence long before the Federalist Society, and even those who disavow the organization perpetuate white supremacy, racial capitalism, and patriarchy. The law as it is currently constructed is, by default, a tool of domination; it requires serious effort to use the law as a tool for harm reduction, much more as a tool for liberation.

• • APALSA law school Wall statement

Dear W’all, The APALSA Board would like to build on the messages sent by theDred Scott Society, FGP, YLW, and BLSA to support and affirmthe message of our classmate Marina Edwards. It is critical for us as Asian American and Pacific Islander students to work in solidaritywith our peers – especially our Black peers who have been disproportionately impacted by this community harm and taken on disproportionate labor to repair it – to underscore the impact that this incident has had on our YLS community.

• October 20.
  • Volokh on language
  • "Yale Law School Students to Media: ... :Asian-American student group says comparisons to Maoist China are 'offensively racist',"Aaron Sibarium, Washington Free Beacon. Various student groups attack Colbert.
  • Prof. Christakis tweet
  • Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic

Jed DeVaro ( Cal State-East Bay econ)

• Jed DeVaro faculty profile and his Google Scholar Citation page.

• "Professors not immune to gender inequality: Jung Sook You, CSUEB," The Pioneer, November 30, 2020.

Roland Fryer (Harvard econ, 2019)

• "Harvard, the NY Times and the #MeToo Takedown of a Black Academic Star," Stuart Taylor Jr., RealClearInvestigations, January 29, 2019.

• "The Lynching of Roland Fryer," Substack (2021).

Timothy Jackson, North Texas, Musicology

• A long article in The New York Times.

• His legal Complaint in federal court, and full 300-plus page complaint plus exhibits A through V

• https://dentonrc.com/news/music-professor-files-suit-against-unt-for-alleged-retaliation-over-racism-accusations/article_3b78065d-d11e-5220-a77f-eb4274f1aa38.html

• https://www.thefire.org/punished-for-his-scholarship-university-of-north-texas-music-professor-files-federal-lawsuit/

• https://www.nas.org/blogs/article/a-canceled-music-theorist-fights-back-against-academic-tyranny

• https://www.thecollegefix.com/music-professor-sues-university-for-punishing-him-over-defense-of-racist-compose

• Commentary:

https://quillette.com/2021/02/09/the-attack-on-timothy-jackson-is-an-assault-on-liberal-education/

https://www.realcleareducation.com/articles/2021/03/31/university_sued_for_violating_music_profs_free_speech_110560.html

Webcast with Michael Thadd Allen and Prof. Jackson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BYEmzYAMok&t=1825s

Diane Klein (LaVerne, Chapman)

• "Law professor says university fired her by ‘racializing’ criticism of black colleague’s performance," CHRISTIAN LUBKE (AUGUST 26, 2020).

In a meeting on the future of the law school last fall, Klein told colleagues that they must decide “whether we are willing to assassinate” Assistant Dean Jendayi Saada, who runs the Center for Academic and Bar Readiness.

• Insider Higher Education article.

• Petition from Laverne faculty in support of KLein.

• Chapman Law teaching schedule.

• AAUP State of California Vice President for Private Universities (2020-2022).

Gordon Klein

• A page at has better information than I have here.

• My June 29 blog write-up with links about Klein's situation. It has a link to the very good Larry O'Connor show interview audio.

• Summer 2020: Long and detailed FIRE letter to UCLA.

• Summer 2020: "Statement of the Committee on Academic Freedom," the U of California system committee chaired by Professor Eugene Volokh. Susannah Lohman is a member too.

• Summer 2020: "Fire Dean Bernardo" petition with 1,200 signatures and 34 pages of comments.

• October 2020: "UCLA reinstated Gordon Klein. Who will reinstate his reputation?" Alex Morey, FIRE.org. This is a very good interview with Gordon Klein in which he carefully praises FIRE and the Committee on Academic Freedom and, it looks like to me, paves the way for a possible lawsuit on breach of confidentiality by Dean Bernardo. Very good photo of Klein at the top, too.

• The UCLA AAUP leadership, which includes Susannah Lohman; and the AAUP State of California leadership.

John Kluge (Indiana schoolteacher)

• District Court decision

John MacAdams (Marquette, 2018)

"John McAdams, political science professor who took Marquette to the state Supreme Court, dies," Devi Shastri, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, April 15, 2021.

Meriwether (Ohio, gender pronouns)

See Meriwether Case of Administration Persecution. Not a cancelling case, really, if I remember right; a wokeness case, though.

Joseph Petry (Illinois)

• Feb. 28, 2020 University Report online.

• June 11, 2020 News Release by Thies-Webber.

• January 27, 2021 News Release by Thies-Webber after winning on the motion to dismiss, with the Complaint and Motion to Dismiss and Objection to the Motion to Dismiss and Decision. This is the key document.

• Jan 28, 2021 "Ex-professor's breach-of-contract suit against UI can proceed, judge decides," Ben Zigterman [email protected],.

• FEBRUARY 9, 2021, "Judge approves professor’s lawsuit against university for baseless grades-for-sex investigation," HENRY KOKKELER - WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY. This is a very informative article.

Stephen Porter (NC State, 2021)

"“Death by a Thousand Cuts”: Professor Files Lawsuit Against NC State University," Inside Higher Education, Oct. 11, 2021, Shannon Watkins.

Judge Pryor (2021)

• Attack on him by Dorf on Law for hiring a clerk who sent an anti-black tweet once a few years ago.

J. Mark Ramseyer (Harvard Law)

See his individual page at J. Mark Ramseyer.

Amy Wax (Penn Law)

• https://newcriterion.com/issues/2018/4/fahrenheit-451-updated 2018 New Criterion article]

Level 2 and 3 Witch Hunts

2021 and 2019 ( Paul Graham

We can classify witch hunts by how long such paths can be. E.g. in a level 3 witch hunt, you can be targeted for defending someone who defended someone who was targeted. I saw that happen in 2020. I don't think I've seen 4 hops yet though.

It happened to me. A mob came after me when I tweeted this because they thought I was defending Stallman for defending Minsky. (Actually I wasn't. Stallman just happened to be one of two people getting cancelled then.)

Sep 17, 2019

If we extended human lifespans sufficiently, everyone would be cancelled. The drift in moral fashion would ensure that even those most carefully orthodox in their opinions would have said something that later became heretical.

2019 had 245 comments and 105 quote retweets and 2K Likes.

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