Last summer, Theodore Ruger, Dean of the University of Pennsylvania’s Carey Law School, sent a letter to the chair of Penn’s Faculty Senate requesting a “full review” of the conduct of tenured law professor Amy Wax, and recommending the Senate “impose a major sanction against her.” This was the culmination of a long, five-year struggle with Wax, who has found herself at the center of one firestorm after another. Until then, Ruger had resisted taking this dramatic step, preferring instead to limit Wax’s responsibilities and her contact with students. Ruger’s patience with Wax seemed to have run its course.
Wax responded by filing a 43 page grievance complaint which attacked the sweeping nature of Ruger’s claims and the disciplinary process itself. In her complaint, Wax raises legitimate questions about how Penn’s Faculty Senate is handling the process of deciding what—if any—sanctions she might face. The heart of her argument correctly maintains that “the allegations in the charges do not concern Behavior or other actions, but only Expression.”
Nevertheless, to many inside and outside the Penn community, Wax’s expression is self-evidently beyond the pale and…
