UW Professor's Parody of Land Acknowledgment in Class Syllabus Protected by First Amendment |
Free Speech
"[I]n the public university setting, student disagreement with a professor's academic speech on an issue of public concern cannot alter the Pickering analysis in the government's favor."
Eugene Volokh | 12.19.2025 4:28 PM
A short excerpt from today's long Ninth Circuit decision in Reges v. Cauce, written by Judge Daniel Bress and joined by Judge Milan Smith (note that the university apparently didn't argue that the speech was unprotected because it was off-topic for a computer science class, presumably because the university itself had encouraged non-parody land acknowledgments in such syllabuses):
A public university investigated, reprimanded, and threatened to discipline a professor for contentious statements he made in a class syllabus. The statements, which mocked the university's model syllabus statement on an issue of public concern, caused offense in the university community. Yet debate and disagreement are hallmarks of higher education. Student discomfort with a professor's views can prompt discussion and disapproval. But this discomfort is not grounds for the university retaliating against the professor….
In 2019, the Allen School [of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington] revised its "Best Practices for Inclusive Teaching" to recommend that instructors include an "Indigenous Land Acknowledgement" in their course syllabi. This document offered UW's official land acknowledgment as an example, while making clear that its suggestions were "not prescriptions," but only "ideas" intended to help faculty be "more effective teacher[s] and better role model[s] for more of your students."
Professor Reges viewed UW's land acknowledgment, and the recommendation to include it in syllabi, as a political statement. Reges believes that land acknowledgments are part of "an agenda of 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' that treats some groups of students as more deserving of recognition and welcome than others on account of their race or other immutable characteristic." He therefore did not think it was appropriate for the Allen School to recommend the inclusion of this "political statement" in syllabi. Reges also disagreed with the factual premise of the land acknowledgment, as he believed that "most of the land currently occupied by UW was densely forested before the land was cleared to make way for the campus." He thought the land acknowledgment expressed "that UW's presence is somehow illegitimate, shameful, morally wrong, or unlawful," and considered it "an empty, performative act of moralism" ripe for parody….
On January 3, 2022, the first day of UW's Winter Quarter, Reges met with his Computer Science and Engineering 143: Computer Programming II (CSE 143) class in an online session. This introductory course is required for certain majors and included roughly 500 students. During the session, students accessed Reges's syllabus, which contained the following statement: "I acknowledge that by the labor theory of property the Coast Salish people can claim historical ownership of almost none of the land currently occupied by the University of Washington." Although Reges briefly mentioned the statement during class, it appears most students did not notice it at the time.
This led to an uproar, which is described in much more detail in the opinion. That in turn led to the university's "opening a lengthy disciplinary investigation (during which a merit pay increase was withheld), reprimanding Reges, and threatening him with further discipline—plainly qualifies as adverse employment action under our precedents."
Reges sued, claiming that this constituted unconstitutional retaliation based on his First-Amendment-protected speech. The panel concluded that the First Amendment presumptively........