Inside Higher Ed
August 7, 2015
Steven Salaita’s yearlong fight against the University of Illinois got longer Thursday, when a judge said his civil lawsuit could proceed to trial. While trying to predict the outcome of any case based on a preliminary judgment is futile, the decision is favorable to Salaita in many ways and establishes the possibility that the university violated both the First Amendment and contract law when it revoked his job offer last August.
“Given the serious ramifications of my termination from a tenured professorship to a wide range of people,” Salaita said in a statement, “I am happy to move forward with this suit in the hope that restrictions on academic freedom, free speech and shared governance will not become further entrenched because of [the university’s behavior].”