Federal court to hear UW prof’s viewpoint discrimination suit over land acknowledgment

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is breathing new life into a lawsuit against the University of Washington by professor Stuart Reges over a satirical land acknowledgment.

Reges sued the school last spring after they launched an investigation into him for putting a mock land acknowledgment in his course’s syllabus. It came after the university encouraged the practice.

“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.

A district court initially ruled against Reges, but the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed to hear his case on May 15.

“I like our chances here,” attorney Josh Bleisch told “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH. He’s working with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (the FIRE).

“I think they [the Court] might agree with us that a university is a special kind of public employer. It’s not like a police department. It’s not a K-12 school. It’s a place where debate and discussion is encouraged. It’s kind of the whole point of going to university,” said an optimistic Bleisch.

UW started the land acknowledgment move

Bleisch noted that it’s unfair for the school to single out Reges when they started this culture war in the first place.

“They opened up the battlefields here, they opened up the debate. They’re the ones who said to their faculty, ‘hey, it’s a good idea for you to put a land acknowledgement statement on your syllabus.’ They just didn’t like the political stance that Professor Reges took. And that’s viewpoint discrimination, and that’s unconstitutional.”

But what happens next if the court rules against Reges again?

“I think we’ll definitely look at taking this up to the Supreme Court… It’s hard to predict whether they take any case, but we’ll keep fighting until we can’t anymore,” said Bleisch.

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