Bakersfield Settles With Professor Suing Over DEI Principles

Bakersfield College history professor Daymon Johnson secured a settlement last week after a three-year legal battle with the college and its district over the California Community College system’s requirements for faculty related to diversity, equity, inclusion and access.

In a 2023 lawsuit, Johnson accused administrators of penalizing him and other professors for expressing conservative political and social views based on the system’s DEIA principles, including that faculty “employ teaching, learning, and professional practices that reflect DEIA and anti-racist principles” and demonstrate “proficiency in DEIA-related performance to teach, work, or lead within California community colleges.” He claimed the mandate would force him to express views he didn’t believe. Johnson is a member of the Renegade Institute for Liberty, a faculty group at Bakersfield that describes itself as dedicated to “free speech,” “free markets” and “American ideas within the broader Western tradition of meritocracy.”

The settlement turns a preliminary injunction granted by a federal court in February into a five-year permanent injunction that prevents administrators from investigating, disciplining or terminating Johnson for political speech. But he’s still required to attend mandatory DEIA training to serve on a faculty screening committee. Johnson also won $150,000 toward his attorneys’ fees, according to the Institute for Free Speech, which represented him in the lawsuit.

“After three years, rather than being mandated to value and promote DEI with its neo-Marxist understanding of race, grievance, identity politics, and cloaked affirmative action, I can finally get back to focusing on what I’ve always cared about—teaching history and engaging in the free exchange of ideas,” Johnson said in a news release from the Institute for Free Speech. “I hope this settlement sends a message to college officials across California: faculty cannot be compelled to endorse political ideologies they don’t believe.”