Controversial professor Steven Salaita, whose job offer at the University of Illinois was rescinded after he made anti-Israel comments on social media, filed a lawsuit Monday alleging that the university has violated the state’s open records law.
The lawsuit, filed in Champaign County court, contends the university failed to comply with the Illinois Freedom of Information Act by refusing to produce documents that Salaita’s attorneys requested. State law requires government bodies, including public universities, to disclose records related to decisions, policies and other government activity upon request.
Salaita had been offered a tenured position at U. of I., but it was rescinded in August, weeks before he was to start, after he wrote hundreds of anti-Israel tweets during the summer, some of which included profane and inflammatory language. The decision not to hire Salaita was met with backlash from faculty across the country who argued that Salaita was punished for his controversial views.
The dispute over the records began with a request from Salaita’s attorney Sept. 17, days after the U. of I. board of trustees voted 8-1 not to hire him. That vote finalized a decision made weeks early by campus officials.
The request by Maria LaHood, Salaita’s attorney with the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, asked for nine categories of documents, including emails from 38 university officials containing at least one of 26 keywords.
The university responded that the request was “unduly burdensome” because there are “potentially thousands of records responsive” to the request. Illinois law allows public bodies an exemption for requests that they consider unduly burdensome.
On Oct. 15, Salaita’s attorney narrowed the request to ask for emails of 15 university officials that contained at least one of 14 keywords during a three-month period. The revised request was narrowed so it targeted “emails related to outside influences that affected the decision to fire Salaita,” according to the lawsuit.
For example, it requested emails with the keywords “Palestine,” “Jewish and “Uncivil,” records show.
The lawsuit alleges that the university’s outside lawyer has not provided a written response to the narrowed request — or to another version narrowed even further Nov. 5 — and that “it has vaguely objected orally” that it would still require the review of thousands of emails.
The lawsuit asks the court to order the U. of I. to produce the requested records under FOIA.
“The university has put some documents out there about the decision, but they have not told the full story,” said Anand Swaminathan, an attorney with Loevy & Loevy, a Chicago-based firm that filed the lawsuit on Salaita’s behalf. “We believe it is extremely important, especially given the amount of interest among academics, students at the university, faculty, the media and audiences around the country.”
U. of I. spokesman Thomas Hardy, the university’s chief records officer, said school officials had not yet seen the lawsuit.
“We’ll review it carefully and defend the university’s interests,” Hardy said.
Salaita, 38, was to start in a tenured position in the U. of I.'s American Indian studies department Aug. 16. He left his tenured position at Virginia Tech University earlier in the year, then tweeted hundreds of comments during the Middle East conflict this past summer.
Salaita has described his tweets as “passionate and unfiltered,” and many focused on the number of children killed in the conflict. Critics have said the U. of I.'s decision was an affront to free speech and academic freedom — the principle that protects faculty who have unpopular and controversial views.
Examples of his tweets include: “If (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu appeared on TV with a necklace made from the teeth of Palestinian children, would anybody be surprised?” And: “Let’s cut to the chase: If you’re defending #Israel right now you’re an awful human being.”