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Saturday, November 3, 2012

Mistrial in Political Bias Case

By Scott Jaschik
Inside Higher Ed
Originally published October 25, 2012


A federal judge on Wednesday declared a mistrial on one charge in a suit by a professor who charged she was passed over for a law school faculty position at the University of Iowa because of her conservative politics and activism, while the jurors rejected another charge.

The judge acted after jurors twice declared that they were deadlocked. The first time they did so, the judge urged them to try to reach a verdict.

Initial press reports indicated that the jury deadlocked on the entire case, but The Iowa City Press-Citizen reported that -- after some confusion on this point -- the judge clarified that the jurors had rejected a claim of First Amendment violations but had deadlocked on the question of whether equal protection rights had been violated.

While informal allegations of political bias against conservatives in higher education are widespread, lawsuits of this nature are rare.

The entire story is here.