A New Jersey Institute of Technology professor’s off-campus comments were protected by the First Amendment and did not disrupt the Newark school’s educational mission, the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals said Monday. (Courtesy of New Jersey Institute of Technology)
A federal appeals panel has determined that a New Jersey university was wrong to deny a philosophy professor continued employment after learning he praised Adolf Hitler and made other controversial comments outside the classroom.
Judge Paul Matey of the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that Jason Reza Jorjani’s off-campus comments were protected by the First Amendment and did not disrupt the New Jersey Institute of Technology’s educational mission, as it claimed.
Matey, writing for a unanimous three-judge panel, cited a 2021 federal ruling that sided with an Ohio professor disciplined for refusing to use a transgender student’s preferred pronouns.
“In essence, NJIT posits that because Jorjani offered views it disliked, the First Amendment should not apply,” Matey wrote. “We cannot agree, lest we permit ‘universities to discipline professors, students, and staff any time their speech might cause offense.’”
The 13,000-student university in Newark hired Jorjani in 2015 and renewed his contract in 2016 and 2017. But administrators placed him on paid leave after a New York Times column and video revealed he had made controversial comments about Hitler, race, and immigration, and that he had founded an alt-right corporation and website with white nationalist Richard Spencer.
The university’s president and a dean emailed faculty and staff denouncing Jorjani’s comments, the Faculty Senate issued a statement declaring his views “morally repugnant,” and the school fielded about 50 emailed complaints, according to the ruling. Various departments raised concerns about his views creating a “hostile learning environment” on a campus with a sizeable enrollment of students of color, and administrators accused Jorjani of ethical breaches for failing to mention his alt-right ties in required “association with organizations” disclosures, the ruling said.
The school hired a law firm to investigate, and administrators ultimately decided against renewing his contract, according to the ruling.
Jorjani sued in July 2018, claiming retaliation in violation of the First Amendment. A U.S. District Court judge dismissed his case last year, saying that his speech wasn’t protected by the First Amendment because the school’s “interest in mitigating the disruption caused by Plaintiff’s speech … outweighs Plaintiff’s interest in its expression.”
But Matey said that ruling was “an error,” citing a famous dissent from a 1929 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that defended unpopular political speech.
“Jorjani’s speech occurred entirely outside NJIT’s academic environs. His theories, even if lacking in classical rigor, remain of public import,” Matey wrote. “It matters not that his opinions do not enjoy majoritarian support, since ‘the proudest boast of our free speech jurisprudence is that we protect the freedom to express ‘the thought that we hate.’”
College students have an “interest in hearing even contrarian views,” Matey wrote, again citing the Ohio case. The university’s claim that Jorjani’s views were disruptive to the college community was “speculative,” Matey added, noting that they did not incite student protests or upheaval.
Monday’s ruling revives Jorjani’s retaliation claim. Jorjani did not respond to a request for comment. Matthew Golden, a university spokesman, declined to comment.
Matey was nominated to the federal bench by President Donald Trump. He was joined in Monday’s opinion by Judge Peter Phipps, another Trump appointee, and Judge Cheryl Ann Krause, a nominee of Barack Obama.
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