Timex
5665
Did he go to jail for that?
Wait, I thought Nazis would be fans of the First Amendment* as itâs what allows them to say their hateful shit without legal repercussions?
*at least until theyâre in charge, anyway
ShivaX
5667
But someone might insult them.
Nazis in the 21st century arenât bright.
Proof they are organized into terror cells, but I highly doubt that an 18 yr old is the ringleader
At least the Feds are starting to take out seriously.
Pyperkub
5670
How to handle a neo-Nazi/alt-right Professor, the right way:
Professor Eric Rasmusen has, for many years, used his private social media accounts to disseminate his racist, sexist, and homophobic views. When I label his views in this way, let me note that the labels are not a close callâŚ
âŚWe cannot, nor would we, fire Professor Rasmusen for his posts as a private citizen, as vile and stupid as they are, because the First Amendment of the United States Constitution forbids us to do so. That is not a close callâŚ
âŚTherefore, the Kelley School is taking a number of steps to ensure that students not add the baggage of bigotry to their learning experience:
No student will be forced to take a class from Professor Rasmusen. The Kelley School will provide alternatives to Professor Rasmusenâs classes;
Professor Rasmusen will use double-blind grading on assignments; if there are components of grading that cannot be subject to a double-blind procedure, the Kelley School will have another faculty member ensure that the grades are not subject to Professor Rasmusenâs prejudices.
If other steps are needed to protect our students or colleagues from bigoted actions, Indiana University will take them.
JoshL
5671
Yeah, they probably want to read that again. The 1st Amendment limits what Congress can do, not what the University of Indiana can do. Also, the 1st Amendment doesnât seem to have any text about tenured university positions being a human right.
The right to free speech is not the same as the right to a platform, or a job. Yeah, if they fired him, heâd probably sue. But letâs be honest, thatâs why theyâre not firing him, not because the U.S. Constitution forbids them to.
Besides which, if they are instituting policies to prevent him from discriminating against his students, then they must believe that he is discriminating against his students (giving them worse grades, etc). Thatâs not speech, and he could clearly be fired for that.
Also the idea of firing a tenured professor over ideas is uncomfortable. A big part of tenure is the idea of protecting academics from being removed over their controversial ideas.
Nesrie
5676
If he is marking down all the non-white, women and LGBQTA+ students, his ass is grass no matter how someone feels about his ideas. It would, however, cost the university to prove it.
ShivaX
5677
I canât see this not being a thing that happened given who he is and I expect the university to go through everything heâs ever touched with a fine-toothed comb. They canât safely fire him for saying racist shit in their opinion, but if he ever let that even remotely slip into grading or the like, they have cause to can his ass for that reason. Which would be a wonderful thing.
Nesrie
5678
If I had been his student, and I didnât like the grade I got from him, Iâd challenge every freaking one of them, and when I was done with that, I would track down all my fellow students, as many as I could find, and have them challenge it too. And at some point, the cost of dealing with the students is probably going to outweigh the cost of dealing with the professor.
Theyâre acting like like tenure is a golden ticket to discrimination, and it sure as heck is not. Discrimination is⌠illegal.
Menzo
5679
The 1st Amendment is incorporated (think thatâs the right term) so that it applies to state governments as well.
CF_Kane
5681
This is actually one of the extremely rare cases where the claim that âwe canât do anything about this offensive speech because of the First Amendmentâ is correct. Yes, the First Amendment begins âCongress shall make no lawâŚ,â but it applies to the states as well as to the Federal Government under a legal doctrine called incorporation.
Indiana University is a state institution, and its employees are protected from being fired for their speech under the First Amendment. There is a surprising long line of case law on the topic (mostly coming out of colleges and universities forcing professors to sign loyalty oaths or reject communism). There are some cases that come out the other way, but those generally involve sexually harassing students in the classroom. IU would almost certainly lose the case, and there are a number of quality lawyers who would represent this guy for free.
If IU were private, they could totally fire the guy though.
In this case they could fire him too. Discrimination in grading students would not be protected speech.
ShivaX
5682
I didnât realize we were talking about a state university. Yeah, that changes everything. They canât fire him. Which explains the response even more and probably doubles down on the keeping an eye on him and going through his history to look for breaches so they can fire him for discrimination.
