University of North Carolina Wilmington: Trustee Pressures University to Investigate Professor for Controversial Facebook Post
Cases
University of North Carolina - Wilmington
Case Overview
On May 17, 2021, Dan Johnson, an associate professor at UNC Wilmington, posted 鈥淏low up Republicans鈥 on his personal Facebook account. Johnson later deleted the post. The university鈥檚 administration correctly deemed the post protected expression, but a university trustee called on the university to conduct an investigation and argued that the professor should be 鈥渉eld accountable鈥 in order to uphold 鈥渙ne standard鈥 in light of previous responses to conservative speech. On June 28, FIREwrote to the Board of Trustees, explaining that there is one standard for expressive rights: the First Amendment, which protects Johnson鈥檚 extramural expression and is binding on public institutions like UNC Wilmington. The trustee ultimately resigned in protest.