Former University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill, rebuffed by the state Supreme Court Monday, said he plans to appeal his firing by the school to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“We’ll see if the U.S. Supreme Court is inclined to do any better,” Churchill wrote in an e-mail to The Denver Post, shortly after the Colorado Supreme Court affirmed two lower court rulings saying Churchill was not entitled to reinstatement or back pay.
Churchill, who was fired in 2007 from his position in CU’s ethnic studies department after charges of plagiarism and academic misconduct, filed a civil lawsuit against the school for wrongful termination. He won the suit, with a jury saying his rights to free speech under the First Amendment were violated by the school. Churchill was awarded $1 by a jury, but the District Court judge declined to reinstate him.
In 2010, the State Court of Appeals upheld the judge’s decision not to give Churchill his job back. He appealed to the state Supreme Court, which made its ruling in a 55-page opinion.
Although a university spokesman said that “everyone in the community is ready to move forward and put this matter in the rearview mirror,” Churchill said he will continue to fight.
“The number of factual misrepresentations contained in the opinion is exceeded only by the number of times the law is twisted to fit the court’s preferred conclusions,” he wrote.
Churchill’s attorney, David Lane, said his client has 90 days to file a petition for the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.
“They’re our last option,” Lane said. “We have a jury verdict that says the CU Board of Regents are First Amendment violators, but Ward Churchill can’t do anything about it.”
According to the Boulder Daily Camera, Churchill sold his home in Boulder last month. Lane told the Camera that Churchill now lives in Atlanta where he continues to write and lecture.
Churchill came under fire after an essay he wrote that likened some victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to a World War II Nazi official. CU investigated whether his essay was protected under the First Amendment and found that it was. But while the investigation was underway, academics came forward and accused Churchill of plagiarism and fraud in scholarly writings, which led to his termination.
Monday’s ruling, affirming the two earlier court decisions, was “disturbing,” Lane said.
“This is a dangerous precedent to all free society,” he said. “There’s never been a dispute that his First Amendment rights were violated, but what they said was that the Regents can’t be sued. I guess that gives them the green light to violate the Constitution any time they see fit.”
In his ruling, District Court Judge Larry Naves said the Board of Regents acted as a “quasi-judicial” panel, which gave it immunity from Churchill’s lawsuit.
CU-Boulder Chancellor Phil DiStefano issued a statement saying the state Supreme Court’s decision “upholds the high standards of academic integrity practiced every day by our faculty, and helps us to ensure the quality of instruction for all our students.”
“It is vital that what is published and what is taught in the classroom be based on research and scholarship grounded in honest, accepted and time-tested methods,” DiStefano said. “This was always what was at stake in this case for the university, and the winners today are our faculty and students.”
Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292, acotton@denverpost.com or twitter.com/anthonycottondp
