A Nevada economics professor comes under attack for remarks about homosexuals, remarks that, as reported, fall squarely within the purview of his scholarly subject, and (as reader Harold Trimmer pointed out to me) the right, including the Fox Propaganda Network, mobilizes to defend "academic freedom." Did anyone tell Bill O'Reilly?
Contrast this hypocrisy with the correct observations by conservative economist Eric Rasmusen (whose own experience with attacks on his First Amendment rights we have remarked on previously) on the Churchill case:
The fact is that (a) Churchill has a job contract with the state of Colorado, and the state can't back out just because it doesn't like what it signed on to earlier; and (b) academic freedom is about cases just like this, where a professor has unpopular political views and a lot of voters want to fire him. The Colorado legislature, governor, and newspapers seem to be barely aware of these two ideas-- binding contracts, and academic freedom-- which depresses me. The contract is treated as a mere roadblock, not an obligation to be honored, and academic freedom is not even addressed-- only freedom of speech.
Too bad a putatively liberal Colorado law professor missed both these legal points as well.
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