University of Washington professor Stuart Reges was exercising free speech when he parodied his employer’s official statement that the land encompassing the Seattle school belongs to local indigenous people, federal judges have determined.
The U.S. Ninth Circuit ruled in a 2–1 decision Dec. 19 that the university violated Reges’ First Amendment Rights when they punished him for including on his course syllabus a satirical take on the school’s official land acknowledgement statement.
The decision overturned a lower court ruling that was in favor of the university. Reges sued in 2022, alleging that other employees harassed him over his parody and created a competing computer science course so students could avoid the professor, according to a news release from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which represented Reges….
Federal Court Rules in Favor of Professor Who Satirized School’s DEI Stance
