On January 31st, 2022, I, with the assistance of Pacific Legal Foundation, filed legal action against San Jose State University for their actions to stifle my free speech and curtail my academic freedom. Actions that included threatening to remove me from classes, locking me out of the curation facility, and withholding resources. Their retaliatory actions came after a campaign against Repatriation and Erasing the Past (University of Florida Press, 2020), which argues that scientific endeavors should trump identity politics and religious superstition. Although the first court date resulted in a dismissal due to the catch-22 of not being able to sue Native Americans and the judge assessing that they are essential in the case, she allowed us to amend our complaint. The second time in front of the judge, she denied the university’s request to dismiss the case and allowed the case to move forward! The case has been covered in the Mercury News, the Washington Examiner, Law360, Bloomberg Law, the Epoch Times, Inside Higher Education, Reason’s the Volohk Conspiracy, the College Fix, and the Art Newspaper.
In June 2023, Pacific Legal Foundation helped negotiate a settlement that enables me to retire at the end of May 2024; during the academic year 2023-2024, I will be in New York City as a faculty fellow at Heterodox Academy’s Center for Academic Pluralism. The settlement agreement was covered by Mercury News, the Epoch Times, Law360, Bloomberg Law, Hoodline and others.
Elizabeth Weiss, PhD 