Court revives suit by professor who defended math standards

A federal appeals court has revived a tenured math professor’s First Amendment lawsuit that was dismissed in 2023.

In 2021, Truckee Meadows Community College in Nevada moved to fire Lars Jensen, citing two consecutive unsatisfactory performance reviews that accused him of “insubordination,” among other things. One of the insubordination allegations concerned Jensen handing out fliers at a state math summit that criticized the college’s math standards. Jensen said the college was watering down its curriculum while rolling out a corequisite support program for students.

In November of that year, college president Karin Hilgerson said she’d accepted a special faculty hearing committee’s recommendation to retain Jensen. But Jensen still sued college officials the following January, alleging, among other things, retaliation for First Amendment–protected speech on matters of public concern. Among his demands was that the college remove the negative information from his personnel file.

A U.S. District Court judge for Nevada dismissed the case in September 2023, but Jensen appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. On Monday, a three-judge panel ruled that the lawsuit could progress. They concluded that the legal concepts of qualified and sovereign immunity don’t protect the Truckee Meadows officials from Jensen’s First Amendment claims.

“We ultimately conclude that the administrators did violate clearly established law,” Judge Marsha S. Berzon wrote on the panel’s behalf. “The state’s interest in punishing a disobedient employee for speaking in violation of their supervisor’s orders cannot automatically trump the employee’s interest in speaking.” She also wrote that the administrators hadn’t shown that Jensen caused an “actual, material and substantial disruption.”

A Truckee Meadows spokesperson said in an email that because the case continues, the college “will not make any further comments on this or any personnel matters as we continue focusing on student success and meeting our community’s needs.”