A California history professor is taking a stand for First Amendment rights, filing a lawsuit last week alleging his employer, which fired his former colleague for sharing personal political beliefs, has since stifled his own.
The lawsuit, filed by The Institute for Free Speech on behalf of Bakersfield College Professor Daymon Johnson, alleged the school terminated Johnson’s colleague Professor Matthew Garrett for expressing conservative views in various spaces, including via op-eds and radio appearances, adding that Johnson himself fears what may happen if the college continues to crack down on his own expression.Â
“Plaintiff Daymon Johnson has special reason to be concerned about his future as a Bakersfield College professor should he continue to express his views,” the lawsuit reads, in part.Â
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According to the document, Johnson is Garrett’s “successor as the Faculty Lead” for the Renegade Institute for Liberty (“RIFL”), a group of Bakersfield faculty members dedicated to preserving and advocating for free speech and other inherently American and Western ideals, including meritocracy and free markets.
The lawsuit expresses Johnson’s concerns that leading the coalition allegedly “villainized” by school administrators could lead him to further scrutiny beyond what he says he has already suffered.
“Bakersfield College has already subjected Professor Johnson to a lengthy and intrusive investigation merely for criticizing and questioning a colleague’s views on RIFL’s Facebook page. Although it ultimately cleared Professor Johnson of violating any actual rules, the process was the punishment.Â
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“The investigation forced Professor Johnson to retain counsel, and the school’s ten-page single-spaced findings sustained or found plausible various “allegations”…
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