A Montana newspaper reports:
University of Montana professor Rob Natelson, accusing the Law School of discriminating against him for years because of his conservative political views, has asked the state Board of Regents to overturn a decision denying him the opportunity to teach constitutional law. . . .
Natelson urged the regents to admonish the Law School “to reassess its policies and practices to assure that faculty members of all viewpoints receive equal opportunity and treatment in hiring, promotion, work practices, merit pay and faculty awards, and that there is greater viewpoint diversity among faculty.”
In addition, he asked the regents to order the Law School to file “a plan of affirmative action (but not preferential hiring) to assure that the goals of equality opportunity, equal treatment and intellectual diversity are met.” This may include, he said, “reassessment of intellectual political bias, faculty sensitivity training and basic education in federal and state provisions against illegal discrimination.” . . .
Natelson said he’s been punished by the Law School in several ways. His requests for merit pay increase have been denied, he said, and his applications to teach constitutional law have been spurned four different times after professors teaching the course have left the school. . . .
In his appeal, Natelson cited the Montana Constitution ban on political discrimination and said political discrimination by state agencies can be unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. . . .
I’m not sure whether politically based teaching assignment decisions would indeed be unconstitutional — the question of a university’s power to control the content and viewpoint of the classes that it offers turns out to be a complex and, in my view, unsolved First Amendment issue. Moreover, since it would be very hard for a university to control class content directly (for instance, by reviewing each professor’s lesson plans, or monitoring what he says in class), the university might plausibly argue that such control, if it’s constitutionally permissible in the first place, can be done by considering a professor’s ideology in deciding which classes to assign him to teach.
I’m also not sure whether Prof. Natelson’s claims are factually accurate (and I’m sure that I won’t invest the huge amount of time needed for me to decide this for myself).
Still, if Prof. Natelson’s claims are factually accurate, then this would show a serious professional failing (whether or not it’s also a legal failing) on the law school’s part. I do hope the matter gets more closely investigated.
Many thanks to Paul Caron (TaxProf Blog) for the pointer.
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