U. Alabama Professors Launch Appeal, Claiming That DEI Ban is ‘Censorship’
“We feel very constrained by the vagueness of the law”
The left is not going to let go of this. They know that they benefit politically from these programs.
The College Fix reports:
Alabama DEI ban is classroom ‘censorship,’ professors allege in federal appeal
A group of University of Alabama students and professors filed an appeal Monday in a federal lawsuit that seeks to overturn a ban on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in public education.
They argue that the state law, which passed in 2024, has led to “discriminatory campus censorship,” AL.com reports.
The law prohibits public K-12 schools and state universities from compelling a student or employee to affirm or adhere to a “divisive concept” such as white privilege, or to participate in mandatory DEI training.
The appeal, submitted to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, argues that a federal judge erred in his August decision allowing the state to enforce the law.
Antonio Ingram, senior counsel with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, told AL.com that the plaintiffs hope the appeals court will restore “the freedom to learn back to the University of Alabama system.”
“Students and professors at the University of Alabama are currently subject to censorship in their academic and extracurricular life on campus because of SB 129,” Ingram said.
According to the appeal, “The student plaintiffs contend that the court overlooked key facts and applied the law incorrectly when it concluded they had not been sufficiently harmed by SB 129 or that it lacked authority to remedy their constitutional violations.”
A professor told the Associated Press the law has forced her to change what she teaches:
Dana Patton, a plaintiff who teaches political science at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, said in an interview that the state law led her to change curriculum that she has taught for decades.
“We feel very constrained by the vagueness of the law,” Patton said, since some students might misinterpret a lesson for endorsement of a certain viewpoint.
Last year, five students complained that Patton’s curriculum for the interdisciplinary honors program she administers is in conflict with the law. Patton insists that she has always taken measures to ensure a wide array of view points are represented — but that hasn’t assuaged her fears. She has since taken some material off of her syllabus.
However, U.S. District Judge David Proctor disagreed with the censorship claims, The College Fix reported at the time.
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Comments
being black isnt considered and academic qualification …except by racist leftists
try that !!!!
This is just stupid.
Yes, to some extent it is censorship. But, hear me out.
DEI, in and of itself, is discriminatory as an action. To actually hire on the basis of race, etc., Is de facto wrong. The discriminatory action is unconstitutional for gov’t and illegal for anything considered a “public accommodation.”
Talking about DEI is free speech, though, right? Well, hold yer horses, because… not necessarily. If you talk about it on certain ways – making it a belief requirement, or teaching it, for example – you now produce a “hostile work environment.” Or, in the case of students, a “hostile learning environment.” And THAT is also very illegal.
So, no, free speech does not protect this. At least, not under the rules the Progressives set for the rest of us.
Argument #82 for why education shouldn’t be run by the government. It creates a tension between the rights of the employer as an employer, and the rights of the employee as a citizen.
If the prohibition were federal, the answer would be easy: teach anything you like, but we reserve the right to stop funding you.
On the state level, there is no such flexibility — they are PUBLIC schools and therefore the funding is baked in. Now how does employer control balance freedom of speech?
Communists and moslems: “We will use their own weak system against them.”