UPenn Asks Court to Dismiss Professor Amy Wax’s Racial Discrimination Lawsuit

UPenn Asks Court to Dismiss Professor Amy Wax’s Racial Discrimination Lawsuit

Professor Amy Wax’s racial discrimination lawsuit against the University of Pennsylvania shifted into high gear last week when the school asked a federal judge to dismiss it for failure to state a claim.

As we reported in January, Wax sued UPenn after it refused to lift the sanctions imposed on her last fall for expressing her conservative views. The sanctions came after more than two years of disciplinary proceedings against the award-winning, tenured law professor.

Wax’s travails with the university began in 2017, when she triggered the woke campus mob by unapologetically expressing traditional American values in an op-ed. We’ve covered them from the beginning:

• Prof. Amy Wax Sues UPenn Over Race-Based Discriminatory Speech Policy
• Embattled Law Prof. Amy Wax to UPenn: Lift Sanctions or I’ll See You in Court
• Report: UPenn To Sanction Dissident Law Professor Amy Wax
• Report: Embattled UPenn Law Prof. Amy Wax Appealing Hearing Board Sanctions Quietly Recommended Over The Summer
• House Committee Demands U Penn Antisemitism Records, Decries Hypocritical Mistreatment Of Prof. Amy Wax
• Embattled UPenn Law Prof Amy Wax Sets the Record Straight: “mainstream media coverage has been agenda-driven”
• It “Sucks” That Prof. Amy Wax Still Employed, U Penn Law Dean Declared On Recently Released 2019 Audio
• Tables Turned: Prof. Amy Wax, Charged With Wrongthink, Files Counter-Grievance Against U Penn Law Dean
• U Penn Law Prof. Amy Wax Seeks Dismissal Of University Disciplinary Proceedings: “Premature, Unwarranted, and Prejudicial”
• How A Weak Penn Law Dean Weaponized Student Hurt Feelings Against Dissident Prof. Amy Wax

As soon as the attacks against her started, Amy Wax doubled down, persistently publicly commenting on hot-button topics such as the negative consequences of affirmative action and immigration restrictions. Her remarks escalated student protests and a petition for her removal.

Her comments that America would be better off “with fewer Asians and less Asian immigration”—because Asian immigrants support the Democrat party responsible for ruining the country—prompted swift condemnation from the dean—and finally gave him the pretext to begin proceedings to terminate her.

Those proceedings begun in 2022 dragged on relentlessly—even as Wax battled cancer—culminating in the school’s decision last September to sanction her “for a major infraction of the university’s behavioral standards.”

Wax’s punishment included suspension for one year at half pay, loss of her named chair, and public reprimand—though she was not fired and did not lose tenure. Her suspension will take effect in the academic year beginning July 1, 2025.

The school said Wax’s “discriminatory and disrespectful statements to specific targeted racial, national, ethnic, sexual orientation, and gender groups with which our students and colleagues identify” created “an unequal learning environment.”

But in her lawsuit, Wax’s lawyers allege it was UPenn that discriminated based on race. By tolerating antisemitic speech while punishing Wax’s protected speech, the University violated federal law against racial discrimination, according to the complaint filed in federal district court in Philadelphia.

Wax also alleges the university’s “kangaroo-court-like” disciplinary procedures—initiated by a Dean who publicly stated that it “sucks” that she still worked at the school—violated its contract with her.

In its motion to dismiss Wax’s lawsuit, UPenn says Wax received all of the process to which she was entitled under the faculty handbook.

UPenn also disputes Wax’s racial discrimination claim, arguing that while federal civil rights laws “prohibit treating individuals differently based on their race,” “they do not prohibit treating individuals differently based on what they say about race.”

The school asks the court to dismiss Wax’s other claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act and for false light invasion of privacy. Today, Wax’s lawyers filed a motion to voluntarily dismiss the ADA claim.

Meanwhile, on Friday, Wax asked the court to block the school from imposing the sanctions against her while the lawsuit plays out. Her lawyers claim she is likely to succeed on the merits of her contractual and civil rights claims, both of which serve the public interest—including the interest of the community of students and professors at the University of Pennsylvania itself: “Ensuring academic freedom and civil rights protections at Penn,” they argue, “will not harm the University but rather will further its very purpose.”

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