December 22, 2025
A split Ninth Circuit panel has determined that the University of Washington violated a professor's First Amendment rights by punishing him for mocking a suggested Native American land acknowledgment, concluding in a new published opinion that "student discomfort" alone is not enough to warrant restrictions on academic free speech.
May 15, 2025
Two Ninth Circuit judges cast doubt on the University of Washington's defense in a First Amendment lawsuit on Thursday, questioning why the college would remove a professor's parody of a Native American land acknowledgment from his class syllabus while permitting him to broadcast the same opinions elsewhere in the academic setting.