UW professor files lawsuit in fight over mock land acknowledgment statement

A professor at The University of Washington (UW) is suing the school after he was investigated for mocking a “land acknowledgment statement” in his course’s syllabus. 

Professor Stuart Reges teaches at The Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, which encourages professors to include a statement that recognizes the university sits on land formerly owned by indigenous tribes. But Reges believed the statement to be political in nature. He opted to include a tongue-in-cheek version to make that point. The school did not react well, censoring the content and subjecting Reges to an investigation.  

Now, Reges’ lawyer, Josh Bleisch, and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) claim UW is engaging in viewpoint discrimination.  

Previous coverage on Reges mocking UW’s land acknowledgment statement: UW administrator goes to war over Seattle professor’s hilarious land acknowledgment joke

The lawsuit against UW alleges First Amendment violations

“This is an investigation under a university policy that prevents (what) they call conduct, but of course they’re investigating pure speech here that prevents anything that’s inappropriate or offensive,” attorney Joshua Bleisch told The Jason Rantz Show on KTTH. “The problem with that is when you’re playing to pure speech like this, any political topic is going to be offensive to somebody. That’s how politics works.”  

Reges instead included a modified statement on his syllabus that encouraged students and staff to “consider the utility and performative nature of land acknowledgments.”

“I acknowledge that by the labor theory of property, the Coast Salish people can claim historical ownership of almost none of the land currently occupied by the University of Washington,” the land acknowledgment read.

The university came down hard on Reges with one administration removing the land acknowledgment, claiming it was “offensive.”

“First, they censored his syllabus for that winter quarter. They took it down and replaced it with a version scrubbing clean the statement from his syllabus,” Bleisch said. “Then they launched an investigation that took really over a year from when they announced it to its conclusion. And that investigation has the threat of suspension or punishment.”

So, what’s next?  

In the lawsuit against UW, Reges is asking the court to find on summary judgment. This essentially means they don’t dispute the facts of the case, and that the school is using a vague and overbroad policy to curtail Reges’ First Amendment rights.

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“We’re asking that the court is at the very least order them to modify the policies that so that they can only apply it to true conduct that is that is illegal … what we’re asking the court to do is to make it so that they cannot use this policy against pure speech,” Bleisch explained 

You can listen to Jason Rantz’s full interview with Bleisch below.  

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