Sunday, October 29, 2023

Update on the Prof. Timothy Jackson/Prof. Philip Ewell controversy

I think my last comment on this, some time ago, was that we should wait to see the results of the legal battles. Well, it seems that a decision has been reached, in favor of Prof. Jackson. Here is a discussion at The New Criterion: Canceling the cancelers. Read the article for the whole sequence of events. But here is the latest:

Jackson did not take the assault lying down. He sued the UNT regents as well as those colleagues who had defamed him. The regents argued that they could not be sued personally because they had “sovereign immunity.” A district court disagreed, handing Jackson a preliminary victory. The regents appealed. But just a few weeks ago, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals found for Jackson on all counts. The decision will have reverberations throughout academia as regents and board members, administrators, and faculty come to realize that defaming people for expressing an opinion with which they disagree can have legal and probably financial consequences.

I'm somewhat surprised that we haven't heard of this ruling already. Nor whether the Journal of Schenkerian Studies will be restored to life.

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