West Point Law Professor William C. Bradford has resigned. He had advocated on a non-individualised kill list the murder of professors, and presumably journalists who interviewed them, who did not echo his views on the clash of civilisations or the so-called “War on Terror.” Not only did Dr Bradford advocate the killing of professors, but also wanted to target, as AAUP First Vice-President Hank Reichman revealed in his post, their “law school facilities, scholars’ home offices and media outlets where they give interviews.”

Since Dr Bradford called for the destruction of Islamic holy sites, even if “collateral damage” occurred, I presume his call for domestic killings might include law students that could be slaughtered in the law-school attacks. While he claims in domestic-targeted assassinations, he would distinguish between “combatants” and non-combatants, we know that such a distinction is risible. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time, is the price of liberty, according to the militaristic former professor.

I presume he was asked to resign. Had he resisted and was fired for his views, I would have defended his rights under the AAUP guidelines that require due process and a hearing before his peers. To the extent that his insouciance concerning collateral damage might have included faculty, students and staff on his own campus, one could countenance a possible suspension.

AAUP guidelines permit a suspension, “if immediate harm to the faculty member or others is threatened by the faculty member’s continuance.” While I do not believe that punishment is justified for views that are published in a law review, I think, had he remained a professor at the United States Military Academy, he deservedly would have been subject to careful scrutiny to determine if he were a threat to others.

The Guardian broke the story of Dr Bradford’s resignation from the United States Military Academy:

A law professor who published an inflammatory article urging attacks on law professors and “Islamic holy sites” and who has been dogged by accusations of misrepresenting his academic and military credentials has resigned from the US Military Academy at West Point, the Guardian has confirmed.

Although West Point hired William C Bradford on 1 August, a spokesman said the prestigious undergraduate institution where the US army educates its future officers parted ways with the controversial academic on Sunday, the day after the Guardian published an article highlighting Bradford’s proposals to treat US scholars as “enemy combatants”.

“Dr William Bradford resigned on Sunday,” army lieutenant colonel Christopher Kasker, a West Point spokesman, told the Guardian on Monday. Bradford had taught five lessons for cadets in a common-core law course, from 17 to 27 August.