No Relief to Messy Professor Who Lost Tenure
Tuesday, November 27th by Robert LoblawStotter v. University of Texas at San Antonio, 06-50305 (5th Cir., Nov. 27, 2007)
“Clean your room or get out!” Words from a frustrated parent to a messy teenager? Not quite. The mess-maker in this case was a chemistry professor at the University of Texas, who ignored repeated warnings to clean up his dangerously cluttered lab space. When University officials decided to clean it themselves, the professor caused such a disturbance that campus police had to lead him away in handcuffs. The professor was eventually fired, which prompted a lawsuit claiming that the University retaliated against him and denied him equal protection.
The district court rejected the plaintiff’s claims, and the Fifth Circuit largely affirms. But the Fifth hands the professor a small victory, concluding that there is a triable issue as to whether his due process rights were violated when the University provost tossed out his personal property along with the other trash in the lab.
But the best part of this case? It’s where Professor Pigpen liked to summer: the Los Alamos National Lab. Great, just great.
