Judge set to hear UF professors’ suit
Plaintiffs allege the school denying them right to testify violates First Amendment
TALLAHASSEE — A federal judge will hear arguments next month in a lawsuit filed by University of Florida professors challenging a policy that gives the school discretion in blocking faculty members from testifying against the state in legal cases.
Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker on Monday scheduled a Jan. 7 hearing in the lawsuit alleging the school’s policy violates First Amendment rights.
For weeks, the state’s flagship university has been under scrutiny after news media reports about its handling of professors’ expert testimony and a conflicts-of-interest policy initiated last year.
Political science professors Sharon Austin, Michael McDonald and Daniel Smith filed the lawsuit after the university denied their requests to serve as plaintiffs’ witnesses in a challenge to a new state elections law (SB 90) that includes making it harder for Floridians to vote by mail. They said school administrators told them that going against the executive branch of government was “adverse” to the university’s interests.
Amid the controversy, the university walked back the decision on the three professors’ testimony in an elections case, with UF President Kent Fuchs saying they would be allowed to be paid to testify if they did so on their own time and did not use university resources. Fuchs also quickly assembled a task force to review the conflict-of-interest issue.
The professors were a part of lawsuit against a law pushed by Gov. Ron DeSantis that the plaintiffs contend will make it harder for minorities to cast ballots because of new voting restrictions.
Lawyers for Fuchs, the university’s Board of Trustees and Provost Joe Glover have asked Walker to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the case is “moot” because the university’s policy has changed.
According to court records, the university told the political science professors that “outside activities that may pose a conflict of interest to the executive branch of the state of Florida create a conflict” for the university. State universities rely on the Legislature for funding, and the governor has the ability to veto line items in the budget.
Fuchs’ reversal on the professors’ testimony came the same day the faculty members filed the initial version of the lawsuit accusing him and other university leaders of “stifling” their First Amendment rights.
“Plaintiffs’ job as public university professors and researchers is not to be mouthpieces for the government’s point of view. It is to develop and share their academic knowledge and expertise with the people of Florida while upholding the university’s values and fulfilling their oath — taken by all public employees in the state — to ‘support the Constitution of the United States and of the state of Florida,’ ” attorneys for the professors wrote in the lawsuit.