An excerpt of a Chronicle of Higher Education story follows. The full (brief) article is available at:
Academic-Freedom Advocates Are Handed a Win in Ohio Ruling
Breaking ranks with several other federal judges who have recently considered the question, a U.S. magistrate judge held last week that the First Amendment protects job-related statements made by faculty members of public colleges… U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael R. Mertz rejected the idea that the Garcetti ruling, which upheld the disciplining of a deputy district attorney for job-related statements, should be applied to speech in an academic setting. The judge’s ruling said universities “should be the active trading floors in the marketplace of ideas.”