Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk,alt.censorship From: kadie@cs.uiuc.edu (Carl M Kadie) Subject: [UPI] CUNY to pay $400,000 free speech violation Message-ID: Date: Wed, 19 May 1993 20:35:03 GMT Copyright 1993 by UPI. Reposted with permission from the ClariNet Electronic Newspaper newsgroup clari.news.group.blacks. For more info on ClariNet, write to info@clarinet.com or phone 1-800-USE-NETS. Date: Tue, 18 May 93 19:07:23 PDT NEW YORK (UPI) -- A federal jury Tuesday found that $400,000 in civil damages was due controversial professor Leonard Jeffries who was stripped last year of his chairmanship of the black studies department at the City University of New York. Last week, the same jury found the school had discriminated against Jeffries when it ousted him in March 1992, saying a speech he gave in 1991 was a ``motivating factor'' in CUNY's decision to deny him reappointment as chairman, an apparent violation of his right to free speech. In a speech made in Albany on July 20, 1991, Jeffries asserted that Jews helped finance the slave trade and that Jews and Italians in Hollywood conspired to disparage blacks in film. Excerpts of the speech were published in the New York Post and set off demands for Jeffries' ouster. City College officials said Jeffries was removed as chairman in March 1992 because the furor of criticism that followed his speech made him an ineffective department head. In charging CUNY with violating his First Amendment rights, Jeffries sought $25 million in damages and reinstatement as chairman, a position he held for almost 20 years. The decision whether to reinstate Jeffries as chairman and whether to award the amount the jury seeks will be made by Judge Kenneth Conboy, said a spokesman for state Attorney General Robert Abrams, whose office represented CUNY officials in the suit. ``A jury finding is just that, a finding,'' said the spokesman, Edward Barbini. ``It's up to the judge to either agree to (the $400,000 award) or set it aside.'' Barbini added that CUNY has indicated it will appeal the ruling. The jury found that CUNY based their decision to strip Jeffries of his title as chairman on the ``reasonable expectation'' that he should have known that his speech would disrupt the operation of his department. But the court held that was not enough, that the school should have more definitely proved Jeffries was an ineffective leader, regardless of the speech.