University of Iowa Professor Speaks about College of Law’s Discrimination Lawsuit: Daily Iowan Reader, March 11

A University of Iowa law professor, speaking publicly about a part-time employee’s lawsuit against the school, said he agreed with a judge who denied her a new trial on March 8.

Herbert Hovenkamp said he backed the judge’s decision against Teresa Wagner but said while the UI’s policy of maintaining silence during the case was “not irrational,” it resulted in some frustrations from faculty members, and it was not unique to the university or Wagner’s case.

“One consequences of [the silence] is the media tend to get one side of the story when one side speaks a lot, and the other side is kind of barred from speaking,” he said. “There’s a reason for [the policy] … several hundred people work for the university, and they’re afraid for a kind of free for all.”

Teresa Wagner, a part-time employee in the UI College of Law’s writing resource center, was denied full-time employment in 2006, which she claimed was based on her past employment and political affiliations. She first filed a lawsuit against then-Dean Carolyn Jones in January 2009. According to the Associated Press, she was denied a new trial on March 8.

Wagner was unable to be reached for comment as of Sunday evening.

On Oct. 24, a jury found that Wagner did not have her First Amendment rights violated, but it was unable to reach a consensus on if she was denied equal protection under the 14th Amendment. However, U.S. District Judge Robert Pratt extended the findings to the equal-protection claim and denied her a new trial on March 8.

Read more here.

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