Dive Summary:
- A federal judge declared a mistrial Wednesday after jurors twice declared that they were deadlocked in a case brought against the University of Iowa by Teresa Wagner, a professor who claims she was passed over for a faculty position at the university's law school because of her conservative political views.
- The jurors did reject a claim of First Amendment violations but were deadlocked when it came to whether or not an equal protection rights violation had occurred, and the judge said the case could be retried if a settlement wasn't reached.
- The University of Iowa maintains that Wagner was passed over not for her political views, but because the job involved teaching legal writing and legal analysis, and Wagner expressed a lack of interest in the legal analysis portion of the job.
From the article:
A federal judge on Wednesday declared a mistrial in a suit by a professor who charged she was passed over for a law school faculty position at the University of Iowa because of her conservative politics and activism. The judge acted after jurors twice declared that they were deadlocked. The first time they did so, the judge urged them to try to reach a verdict. While informal allegations of political bias against conservatives in higher education are widespread, lawsuits of this nature are rare. ...