BY JOHN K. WILSON As the 4th of July draws to a close, the day when Americans across the country believe they have a right to launch illicit explosives anywhere they want to, it’s an important time to talk about mistaken beliefs in fundamental rights. A New York Times news analysis last week titled, “How…
BY HANK REICHMAN If there was a silver lining to be found in the cloud of partisan obfuscation and skewed logic that was Chief Justice John Roberts’ ruling in Trump v. Hawaii, which upheld the president’s notorious Muslim ban, it was the decision’s formal repudiation of the Supreme Court’s infamous 1943 decision in Korematsu v.…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The AAUP has joined with the American Council on Education and 32 other higher education groups in submitting an amicus brief on March 28, 2018, to the US Supreme Court opposing the Trump administration’s recent proclamation instituting a travel ban. The current iteration of the travel ban, introduced on September 24,…
BY HANK REICHMAN I’m often asked whether the AAUP is as willing to defend the academic freedom and due process rights of right-wing faculty members as we are of liberals and leftists, with whom most of our members tend to be more sympathetic. The answer is that we are and have done so repeatedly throughout…
BY HANK REICHMAN Two recent U.S. appellate court rulings, from the U.S Courts of Appeal for the Ninth and Fourth Circuits, mark victories for the free speech rights of striking teachers and of students. In the Ninth Circuit case, Eagle Point Education Association/SOBC/OEA; Dave Carrell; Staci Boyer v. Jackson County School District No. 9, decided…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH I came across an link to an item in the Forsyth County News in Alabama, and the string of adverb phrases in the headline caught my attention: “University of Alabama Searching for Family of Owner of Radio Struck by Meteorite.” The Alabama Museum of Natural History is located on the University…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following is the text of an open letter to members of the U.S. Congress co-written by the March for Science and the American Psychological Association and signed by a growing number of scholarly organizations, including the AAUP. To add your signature go to https://www.marchforscience.com/gunviolence To: The Members of Congress Three…
BY HANK REICHMAN Later this month the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case of Janus v. AFSCME, Council 31, in which anti-union “right to work” forces are challenging the right of public employee unions to collect agency fees from non-members that the unions represent. These fees have since 1977 been protected by…
BY HANK REICHMAN On Friday, January 19, the AAUP and the National Education Association (NEA) jointly filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Janus v. AFSCME, Council 31. In that case the ostensible plaintiff, Mark Janus, backed by the National Right to Work Committee and other anti-union groups, seeks…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following is taken from the AAUP’s website: The AAUP submitted an amicus brief December 28 to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit urging the Court to uphold the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) determination that non-tenure-track faculty at the University of Southern California (USC) are…