Penn Professor Amy Wax Sues University, Alleging Her Suspension Is the Result of Racial Discrimination
Michael Tannenbaum, Philly Voice, January 17, 2025
University of Pennsylvania law professor Amy Wax filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against the Ivy League school, alleging racial discrimination led to her suspension and other sanctions imposed on her in September.
Wax, 71, is a tenured professor at the Carey Law School and has taught at Penn since 2001. At the end of a disciplinary review that spanned more than two years, the university found she had engaged in “flagrantly unprofessional conduct” inside and outside the classroom. She was suspended for one year at half pay and was stripped of her named chair at Penn.
Over the years, Wax’s controversial remarks have included her broadly questioning the academic abilities of Black students and suggesting the United States would be better off with fewer Asian immigrants who support Democrats. Wax also invited Jared Taylor, the editor of the white nationalist news outlet American Renaissance, to speak in her classroom on multiple occasions.
Wax’s lawsuit, filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, claims Penn violated her civil rights and applied double standards to her behavior and speech. The suit describes the five-member faculty hearing board that sanctioned her as a “kangaroo-court” that engaged in unfair processes.
“The disciplinary procedures used were both grossly deficient and a wild departure from established norms governing academic discipline,” the suit claims.
Wax is seeking to have a federal judge order Penn to remove its sanctions on her and to rule that the university’s speech policy violates federal laws regarding discrimination and free speech. The suit also contends Penn’s discipline was in breech of her tenure contract, among other claims.
The lawsuit claims Penn’s speech policy allows some races and ethnic groups to be criticized while permitting others to be disparaged without consequence. The suit points to multiple examples of Penn choosing not to discipline educators for remarks and conduct that could have been viewed as causing “harm” similar to the impact of Wax’s past statements.
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“White speakers are far more likely to be disciplined for ‘harmful’ speech while minority speakers are rarely, if ever, subject to disciplinary procedures for the same,” the lawsuit says.