Joe Gow Hangs in Legal Limbo

Nearly two years after being fired for the second time by the Universities of Wisconsin for making pornography, Joe Gow is still awaiting a resolution on his First Amendment fight.

Gow grabbed national headlines in late 2023 when videos emerged of him and his wife, Carmen Wilson, engaging in sexual activities with each other and with adult film stars. The UW Board of Regents moved quickly to fire Gow from his role as University of Wisconsin–La Crosse chancellor, a job he had held for nearly 17 years. In September 2024, the system fired him again, this time from his role as a tenured faculty member. Regents alleged Gow engaged in “unethical and potentially illegal conduct” and refused to participate in its investigation into him.

Gow responded by suing the system in early 2025 in an effort to win his faculty job back.

While he accepted his firing from the chancellor role, which he was set to retire from in 2024, Gow has argued he should not be fired as a tenured professor for making adult videos on his own time—a position that has been endorsed by First Amendment advocates, including the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

“That we have a First Amendment is all the more important in the digital age, and all the more important when universities are saying they want to promote free expression rather than stifle it,” Gow recently told Inside Higher Ed.

He has argued in legal filings that the videos and erotic books produced with his wife are protected speech and that he was speaking as a private citizen on issues of public concern, such as human sexuality and marriage, and that the UW system deprived him of his First Amendment rights by firing him for making pornography. (He has also denied the allegation that he refused to participate in UW’s investigation, noting that he wanted to obtain legal counsel beforehand.)

Legal Wrangling

Gow was supposed to be in court next week, according to a trial date set last fall.

But the court postponed the trial in December as it weighed the state’s motion to dismiss. State officials argued that the Board of Regents, as an arm of the state, can’t be sued for damages in federal court under the 11th Amendment. Court records show the state also sought to dismiss the lawsuit “for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.” Or, in non-legalese, the state is essentially arguing that Gow did not demonstrate any clearly established First Amendment rights were violated.

Gow amended his complaint June 1, nullifying the motion to dismiss. In his amended complaint, Gow clarified his claims against the defendants in their individual and official capacities and sought damages from them individually, as well as reinstatement by the board.

On Monday, the state once again sought to dismiss Gow’s suit.

The motion and a related brief, filed by the state attorney general’s office, again argued that Gow failed “to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.” State officials maintained that defendants are entitled to qualified immunity, which shields them from liability unless they violated “clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable official would have known.” The state argued Gow has not made a viable claim that his First Amendment rights were violated and that he intended to “further his personal and commercial interests in his outside venture as a pornography actor and producer, rather than to contribute to significant public discourse or legitimate news interests.”

The state argued in court filings that Gow didn’t have a First Amendment right to appear in and disseminate pornographic videos without the expectation of repercussions for employment.

“No reasonable university official would have understood that terminating a professor’s employment under the circumstances alleged in Gow’s complaint violates the First Amendment,” state officials wrote in a legal brief.

(The Universities of Wisconsin system did not respond to a request for comment from Inside Higher Ed.)

A Return to the Classroom?

As Gow awaits a court date, he’s continued to make content with his wife—a mix of vegan cooking videos freely available on YouTube and adult content tucked behind a paywall. Gow and Wilson have also attracted industry attention, winning an XMA Award earlier this year for best sex scene in a featurette. (The XMA Awards are among the top honors in the adult industry.)

Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for Webstar Marketing Group Inc.

Despite some professional success, Gow is quick to state that he’s not in it for the money, given that making the videos, which occasionally feature outside talent, is a costly endeavor.

“We’ve spent way more money on making our productions than we’re getting back,” he said.

Gow and Wilson are also writing a book about their experience, which will chronicle their relationship from when they met to the media circus over his firing and their current legal fight.

“The challenge, of course, is writing about sexuality is very complicated and we’re trying to strike a proper balance,” Gow said. “We’ll probably come up with a book that’s PG-13, or maybe mild R, if we use the movie ratings, whereas now a lot of what we have is X-rated, and that scares away people sometimes. So we want to find a good middle ground there.”

The book also needs an ending—which the courts can provide. And the slow-moving case could yield major implications for academe. While multiple K–12 teachers have been fired for making adult content, Gow’s case as a tenured professor appears to be a first for the sector.

Given the lack of clear parallels in higher education, Gow believes the outcome may set a precedent for faculty free speech rights at a time when many professors have been fired for controversial statements. Gow points to the recent rash of firings over comments about late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, some of which were later reversed as professors sued and won on free speech grounds. With some of those professors returning to the classroom after legal wins, Gow hopes for a similar outcome.

“To be frank, I don’t know that anybody particularly cares what happens to me or my wife, but if you care about freedom of speech for tenured faculty, then you ought to care about this case,” Gow said.