Jason D. Hill, conservative professor sues DePaul for ‘harassment’

A DePaul professor who was vilified on campus for his pro-Israel views has sued the university for waging an “unfair campaign of harassment” against him, arguing that he was targeted because he is black and gay.

Jason D. Hill, a tenured philosophy professor, said the unprecedented outcry over his April 16, 2019 op-ed in the Federalist, a conservative website, in favor of the annexation of the West Bank was rooted in racism and homophobia.

“Dr. Hill has been subject to these discriminatory actions on account of his race and sexual orientation, in that he has departed from opinion defendants have deemed permissible and acceptable for someone of his race and sexual orientation, whom defendants require to espouse prevailing liberal opinion in favor of the PLO [Palestinian Liberation Organization] and against Israel,” said the lawsuit.

His complaint comes as conservative professors face growing hostility on university campuses, but Mr. Hill said the situation is particularly fraught for black academics on the issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“More particularly, defendants have subjected Dr. Hill to unlawful racial discrimination in that as an African-American they expect him to adhere to the opinion that African Americans whose ancestors were slaves must view the Palestinians as an enslaved race and the Israeli government as a slave regime,” said the lawsuit.

The 12-page complaint was filed April 20 in Cook County Circuit Court against the Chicago university; DePaul Faculty Council president Scott Paeth, and provost Salma Ghanem.

Mr. Hill’s views on the West Bank were “nothing new or shocking,” the lawsuit said. “But to a powerful faction in the university community, Dr. Hill picked the wrong side of the debate. And for that, Dr. Hill has suffered censorship, injustice, persecution, and humiliation.”

The lawsuit accused DePaul of defamation, breach of contract and economic interference, saying that the professor was subject to death threats and arguing that university officials are building a case to dismiss him over the article.

University president A. Gabriel Esteban said in an April 2019 statement that DePaul “will not censure Professor Hill for making unpopular statements.” The Washington Times has reached out to the university for comment.

Two weeks after the op-ed was published, however, the faculty council passed a resolution to censure Mr. Hill, declaring that his article “distorts facts,” “promotes racism,” and “advocates for war crimes and ethnic cleansing.”

That May 1 resolution was actually less incendiary than the original draft, which accused Mr. Hill of “an abuse of academic freedom” for a “factually inaccurate” article, but the lawsuit said that the “slightly less defamatory” version was never disseminated by the university.

Conservative, Pro-Israel DePaul U. Prof. Jason Hill sues University for Defamation https://t.co/ZVo6nzqe2Y

— Legal Insurrection (@LegInsurrection) April 28, 2020

In a May 15 statement on official letterhead, Ms. Ghanem said she was “deeply saddened that Professor Hill used his right of academic freedom and free speech to disparage one group over another.” Some faculty members encouraged students to boycott his classes and the university allowed mass campus demonstrations calling for him to be fired.

The result was that three of his 2019 fall semester classes were canceled, and the two classes he did teach saw their enrollment drop dramatically. For example, a class that had typically registered 30 students only had eight, according to the lawsuit.

“Dr. Hill’s diminishing number of classes and students enrolled is the intended result of the unfair campaign of harassment against him,” said the complaint. “Furthermore, Dr. Hill is shunned in the DePaul community. Even his faculty colleagues ignore and spurn him, refusing even to talk to him.”

The Jamaican-born Hill, who describes himself as a conservative independent, is the author of “We Have Overcome: An Immigrant’s Letter to the American People” (2018).