Legal battle by right-wing NJ professor highlights free speech issues

NEWARK — A former lecturer at one of New Jersey's public universities scored a legal victory as an appeals court says his off-campus incendiary comments on race and politics were free speech.

New Jersey Institute of Technology hired Jason Jorjani in 2015 to teach philosophy.

His lecturer’s contract was renewed twice in 2016 and 2017.

The university then opted not to renew Jorjani’s contract based on “private” comments about race, politics, and immigration, around the time that Jorjani created what was called “Alt Right Corporation.”

Jorjani’s speech was protected by the First Amendment, according to a decision issued on Sept. 8 by the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, which reversed a district court’s judgment.

It applied to all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the federal government in the United States and its territories.

Read More: Outrage, politics, and a flag at full staff divide New Jersey

Lecturer at NJIT makes controversial comments off campus

In 2017, a person posing as a graduate student contacted Jorjani to discuss “how the left persecutes and silences right wing thought in academia,” according to the U.S. Appeals Court decision.

In reality, the person was working with a group called “Hope Not Hate,” whose goal is to expose and take on those it considers “fascist” or “extremist.”

Jorjani made comments on matters concerning race, immigration, and politics, and also said Adolf Hitler would be seen in the future as “like Napoleon, like Alexander, not like some weird monster, who is unique in his own category.”

Jorjani did not discuss his outside associations with students or colleagues, nor did he disclose them, as required by NJIT policy.

A New York Times article quoted those incendiary comments, and also featured a video clip from a Jorjani conference in which he characterized “liberalism, democracy, and universal human rights” as “ill-conceived and bankrupt sociopolitical ideologies,” the court ruling said.

University slams lecturer for being against NJIT core values

A day after the Times story was published, NJIT’s president denounced Jorjani’s statements as against the school’s “core values.”

Six days later, Jorjani was placed on paid leave, saying the New York Times story had “caused significant disruption at the university” that NJIT believed would “continue to expand.”

Overall, NJIT received an “unverified number of calls” and, “at most, 50 emails” expressing concern about Jorjani’s recorded remarks, Appellate Judge Paul Matey said in the Sept. 8 decision.

NJIT hired a law firm to investigate whether Jorjani had disclosed his outside activities, and ultimately used that in failing to renew his contract.

Jorjani then sued the school, claiming retaliation, which a district court rejected.

Appeals court says comments were OK under First Amendment

"On balance, the disruption NJIT described does not outweigh even minimal interest in Jorjani’s speech, so the District Court erred in concluding Jorjani’s speech was not
protected by the First Amendment," Matey said in the Sept.8 decision.

"We will vacate the judgment and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion," the ruling also said.

Matey and fellow federal appellate Judge Peter Phipps were both appointed by President Donald Trump.

They were joined in Monday’s opinion by President Barack Obama's nominee, Judge Cheryl Ann Krause, New Jersey Monitor reported.

NJIT, which has its campus in Newark, has more than 13,000 students and a student-faculty ratio of 15:1.

The school does not comment on ongoing litigation, a spokesperson said to New Jersey 101.5.

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