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Austin v. University of Florida Board of Trustees

November 2021
University of Florida (Public college or university)
Gainesville, Florida, United States

Identity of Speakers

  • Sharon Wright Austin
    Faculty/Staff
    Other

    Austin is a political science professor at the University of Florida

  • Michael McDonald
    Faculty/Staff
    Other

    McDonald is a political science professor at the University of Florida

  • Daniel Smith
    Faculty/Staff
    Other

    Smith is a political science professor at the University of Florida

  • Jeffrey Goldhagen
    Faculty/Staff
    Other

    Goldhagen is a professor of pediatrics at the University of Florida

  • Teresa Reid
    Faculty/Staff
    Other

    Reid is a law professor at the University of Florida

  • Kenneth Nunn
    Faculty/Staff
    Other

    Nunn is a law professor at the University of Florida

Resources

Additional Information

  • Incident Nature:
    Other
  • Incident Political Orientation:
    Not Clear
  • Incident Responses:
    Faculty sanctioned
    Litigation
  • Incident Status:
    In litigation Federal District Court
  • Did not involve Speech Codes

Summary

In 2020, the University of Florida adopted a new conflicts of interest policy requiring professors to report all outside activities that might present an “actual or apparent” conflict with their professional obligations to the university—including serving as an expert witness in a lawsuit. When a voting-rights group mounted a legal challenge against a recent change to Florida election law, attorneys for the group asked Austin, McDonald, and Smith to provide expert testimony. The professors duly reported this request to the university, which eventually determined that they could not serve as expert witnesses because “[o]utside activities that may pose a conflict to the executive branch of the state of Florida create a conflict for the University of Florida.” Later, Goldhagen, Nunn, and Reid reported that they had also been prevented from testifying or identifying themselves as University of Florida professors in court documents. The professors filed suit in November 2021, arguing that the university’s policy violated the First Amendment because it was an unconstitutional prior restraint and substantially overbroad. On January 21, 2022, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida granted the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction to stop the university from enforcing the policy.