So you don't have free speech if you are a professor in Florida's states university system

[pmv]

Im not going into a full diatribe here, as no one here wants to read it. But one point: Censorship does not necessarily undermine the pursuit of truth. We could trust the censor to filter out the untruths, and allow only the true ones to get through.

But

This assumed an infallible censor.

If youre truly interested, I suggest you read John Stuart Mill’s essay On Liberty. He succinctly words it better than I do.

Though JS Mill was a huge supporter of imperialism, particularly the British colonization of India. He was employed by the British East India Company for much of his life.

That seems to embody the impossible paradox around the issue of 'free speech' and liberalism in general.

"We're going to give you our idea of liberty, whether you want it or not"

 

[pmv]

I'm actually very curious as to what JS Mill's attitude was to "seditionary" speech by Indian nationalists. It could perhaps be he was at least consistent about that part. Part of the paradox of British rule in India seems to be that it introduced ideas of 'liberty' that it signally failed to live up to - helping construct the case against itself.

 

[mikeymikec]

Im not going into a full diatribe here, as no one here wants to read it. But one point: Censorship does not necessarily undermine the pursuit of truth. We could trust the censor to filter out the untruths, and allow only the true ones to get through.

But

This assumed an infallible censor.

If youre truly interested, I suggest you read John Stuart Mill’s essay On Liberty. He succinctly words it better than I do.

Next time just say, "I've got nothing".

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Lots of back and forth in this article, but as it shakes out, it seems like it's all about the money ....


"By Ryan Dailey – News Service of Florida

Nov 2, 2021

The accrediting organization for the University of Florida has taken preliminary steps that could lead to a probe into whether the university faces “non-compliance issues” over its decision to block three professors from serving as expert witnesses in a high-profile voting rights lawsuit.


With an investigation looming, the university clarified that the political science professors would be allowed to testify as plaintiffs’ witnesses if they don’t get paid or use school resources."

" The university later clarified its position.

“It is worth noting, the university views the professors' request as a request to be paid to testify against the state, and the university, as a public institution, is part of the state -- therefore, that would be adverse to the university's interests. However, to be clear, if the professors wish to do so pro bono on their own time without using university resources, they would be free to do so,” university officials said in a statement provided to the News Service Monday."

https://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2021/11/02/accrediting-uf.html

 

[Fenixgoon]

Professors act as expert witnesses in court all the time. Legal consulting is a fairly lucrative gig. There's a potential conflict of interest, but that doesn't mean there actually is one. And certainly if the consulting were taking place outside office hours and not using University resources, I would expect that to mitigate a lot of the COI

 

[allisolm]

And all this goes out with a whimper as UF reverses its decision and says the professors may testify and are allowed to get paid.

The governor's office said "we do not even understand the origin of the widespread narrative that the governor was somehow interfering with an internal UF matter. This is false, has always been false, and there is no evidence for it, only baseless allegations..."

Yeah, right. I'm sure that in the beginning of this particular brouhaha UF just up and decided on their own to completely change something that had been the policy for years right when the testimony happened to be against DeSantis. Sure they did. I guess the public criticism of the original decision outweighed the governor's supposedly nonexistent displeasure and/or interference. .

University of Florida reverses decision, will allow professors to testify as paid experts in voting rights case | CNN

The University of Florida on Friday announced that it will now allow three professors to testify as paid experts in a voting rights lawsuit, reversing its previous decision.

www.cnn.com

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I think there was another thread, but this is the one that came up .....

Federal Judge Denies University Of Florida’s Motion To Dismiss Professors’ First Amendment Lawsuit

A federal judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by several University of Florida professors after the school attempted to block them from testifying in a federal lawsuit concerning voting rights.

www.forbes.com

.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Coming up .....


Judge to rule soon on UF professors' lawsuit over testifying in court

Orlando Sentinel|21 minutes ago
A federal judge sharply criticized an attorney for the University of Florida on Friday during a hearing on whether six faculty members' free speech rights were infringed upon after the lawyer accused some of the professors of having no standing to make their cases because they had violated school policy.

 

[MtnMan]

Florida is the hold my beer state.

More the "pull my finger" state.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Update?

Judge: UF Can't Stop Faculty in Cases Conflicting With State

A federal judge has temporarily prohibited the University of Florida from enforcing a policy that restricted faculty members from providing expert testimony in cases that conflict with positions taken by the state of Florida.
Associated PressJan. 21, 2022

 

[Fenixgoon]

Update?

Judge: UF Can't Stop Faculty in Cases Conflicting With State

A federal judge has temporarily prohibited the University of Florida from enforcing a policy that restricted faculty members from providing expert testimony in cases that conflict with positions taken by the state of Florida.
Associated PressJan. 21, 2022

Good.