Hubbard v. Blakemore

Summary

Dr. Thomas Hubbard is a professor of Classics at the University of Texas at Austin who is known for his controversial views about the legality of pederasty. Dr. Hubbard argues that age of consent laws in the United States should be relaxed in light of the Greek tradition of sexual relations between adult men and teenage boys. He has also stirred controversy with his course on the “Mythologies of Rape” and a classroom assignment in which he asked students to examine the legality of real and hypothetical rape cases, and in 2000, he published a book with a press that is part of the National Man/Boy Love Association. In 2019, Blakemore and other students distributed a flyer online and on the University of Texas’s campus calling for his ouster. Blakemore repeated the accusations stated in the flyer to local newspapers. According to Dr. Hubbard’s lawsuit, his home was subsequently vandalized, and he was “forced” to relocate to California.

In July 2020, Dr. Hubbard filed a defamation suit against Blakemore and other unnamed students in the District Court for the Western District of Texas. Blakemore argued in defense that her allegations were substantially true and, alternatively, that they were a matter of opinion. In July 2021, Dr. Hubbard filed a motion to dismiss with prejudice. Blakemore then filed a motion to sanction Dr. Hubbard for bringing frivolous claims, arguing that had filed the defamation suit only to pressure the University of Texas to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit he had brought against it. The court dismissed that motion in January 2022.