CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) - A federal judge ruled Thursday that a lawsuit brought by a professor whose anti-Israel Twitter messages led the University of Illinois to withdraw a job offer can continue.
U.S. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber dismissed four of Steven Salaita’s accusations but decided that the bulk of his case could go on.
Salaita was offered a job to start teaching American Indian studies in the fall of 2014 and left his old position at Virginia Tech University only to be told by Chancellor Phyllis Wise not long before classes started that he wouldn’t be hired after all.
Salaita had written a long series of tweets in the summer of 2014 complaining about Israel. Some university donors complained to Wise that the messages were anti-Semitic.
Leinenweber wrote that he believes it was clear the university had a contract with Salaita when in August 2014 it withdrew his job offer.
“The University paid for Dr. Salaita’s moving expenses, provided him an office and University email address, assigned him two courses to teach in the fall, and stated to a newspaper that he would in fact join the faculty, despite his unsavory tweets,” Leinenweber wrote.
In a printed statement, Salaita said he was pleased.
“Given the serious ramifications of my termination from a tenured professorship to a wide range of people, I am happy to move forward with this suit in the hope that restrictions on academic freedom, free speech, and shared governance will not become further entrenched because of UIUC’s behavior,” Salaita said.
A university spokeswoman focused on the charges the judge dismissed, among them that the university had intentionally tried to inflict emotional distress on Salaita.
“While Dr. Salaita has the right to continue his lawsuit, a much narrower version of the case will proceed,” Robin Kaler said.
Salaita was offered the position in fall 2013 and was due to start the following August.
But in the summer of 2014, Salaita, whose father is from Jordan, wrote the long series of tweets complaining about Israeli military action in Gaza.
“Zionists: transforming ’anti-Semitism’ from something horrible into something honorable since 1948,” he wrote in one message.
In August, Wise told Salaita he wouldn’t get the job because the university was concerned about the “abusive nature” of his messages.
Salaita’s lawsuit claims he had already been hired. The university has long claimed that, since the trustees who oversee the university hadn’t yet approved his contract - a step required for all professors - he wasn’t yet an employee.
The lawsuit names Wise, who announced Thursday that she will resign Aug. 12, citing “external issues” that she said have become distractions. She and the campus have also faced a series of allegations of mistreatment of athletes by coaches.
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