The University of Colorado filed a brief May 20 in a Denver District Court, a court filing in opposition to rehiring former CU professor Ward Churchill. He wants his job back after a jury determined he was wrongfully terminated after he wrote a controversial essay about the victims who died in the World Trade Center bombings of 9-11.
Here is an excerpt from the CU brief, a document in which CU officials argue they shouldn’t have to rehire Churchill. They also make a pretty convincing argument on why the jury award of $1 for nominal damages to Churchill should be enough to meet the school’s obligations to Churchill.
From the brief, starting with a reference to David Lane, Churchill’s attorney:
Mr. Lane started with the proposition that awarding Professor Churchill $110,000 a year
was “easy,” then told the jury that the value of a destroyed reputation is “worth a hell of a lot
more than a little bit of money,” then suggested that the case might be worth up to $25
million, and finished by reminding the jury, “All you can do is give money.”
But that was just the beginning. Mr. Lane returned to the same theme in his rebuttal
and asked the jury to award Professor Churchill a massive amount of damages:
And in the great American justice system, where all pain and all
human misery translates into money, I’m still not going to give
you a number, because that is justice, okay?
What do you believe fairly compensates a man for the crushing
of his identity? What fairly compensates somebody for
destroying his reputation, absolutely dragging it through the
mud on a national level, on an international levelThey are all about sending messages. They want to send a
message to students. They want to send a message to faculty.
You need to tell students, you need to tell faculty, not only at
the University of Colorado; you need to tell faculty from one
end of this country to the other, and you need to do it in a big
way.
This is only an excerpt from a 131-page brief, which offers many solid reasons on why CU should not have to pay more than $1 to Churchill. I will be writing more about this soon.
Jodi Rave