The College Fix

‘Settlement acknowledges that Bruce Gilley should not have been blocked for quoting one of our founding documents,’ attorney says

The University of Oregon has agreed to enact free speech reforms to ensure it does not block or censor social media posts to settle a two-and-a-half year old lawsuit with a conservative professor who had been blocked from the institution’s X account after his “all men are created equal” post.

The settlement requires the University of Oregon to clarify social media guidelines to explicitly protect speech from viewpoint-based censorship, create an appeals process for those who believe they were wrongfully blocked, and conduct annual First Amendment training for staff who manage university social media accounts, said attorneys representing Professor Bruce Gilley in a news release.

The university will also pay for some of Gilley’s attorneys fees, the release stated. Inside Higher Ed reported that the “university agreed in the settlement that its insurer would pay from $95,000 to $382,000 in attorneys’ fees to Gilley’s representatives — the Institute for Free Speech and the Angus Lee Law Firm.”

A university spokesperson told IHE the school “does not agree that it committed any of the violations alleged in Bruce Gilley’s complaint. The agreement reached between the university and Mr. Gilley ended the lawsuit without admission of liability or fault.”

Institute for Free Speech Senior Attorney Del Kolde disagrees.

“This victory sends an unmistakable message that university officials cannot act as ideological gatekeepers on social media platforms, including when seeking to promote DEI, which has become a sort of state religion on many university campuses,” he said in a news release.

“The settlement acknowledges that Bruce Gilley should not have been blocked for quoting one of our founding documents and should lead to changes that allow for greater freedom of speech going forward. Public universities should serve as marketplaces of ideas, not echo chambers.”

Gilley, a professor of political science at Portland State University, in 2022 sued the former communications manager of the @UOEquity X account after she blocked him for responding to her “racism interrupter” prompt with the quote “all men are created equal.”

Gilley is known for being denounced by left-wing critics after he published an academic article in the Third World Quarterly in 2017 defending colonialism’s contributions to non-Western developing countries.

MORE: They keep trying to cancel this conservative professor. He refuses to back down.

IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: Professor Bruce Gilley is pictured; X screenshot.

Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter