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Professor Gets Settlement in Lawsuit After Banishment For Critical Blogs

Adams State University a federal lawsuit brought by a former ASU professor who says the school violated his free speech and due process rights when it banned him from campus over blog posts .
The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado announced in a yesterday that ASU agreed to rescind the 鈥淣o Trespass Order鈥 it enacted against Danny Ledonne and will pay $100,000 to settle the lawsuit the ACLU of Colorado brought on Ledonne鈥檚 behalf in February.
Ledonne was banned from campus in October 2015, two days after he began blogging critically about ASU administrators on his . Ledonne taught in the Mass Communication department and did media production work for ASU between 2011 and 2015. After ASU in the spring of that year, he launched Watching Adams.
After banishing Ledonne, ASU repeatedly said that the former professor had not been targeted for his protected speech. But we pointed out numerous inconsistencies in the school鈥檚 story here on The Torch. Specifically, we noted that the persona non grata policy used to ban Ledonne had only been enacted the day after Ledonne鈥檚 first critical post appeared. Within 24 hours, ASU鈥檚 police chief personally delivered a to Ledonne at his home.
In an even more cringe-worthy twist uncovered by my colleague Adam Steinbaugh, ASU appeared to have been in such a rush to target Ledonne that it copied and pasted a persona non grata policy from another Colorado institution鈥檚 website onto its own鈥攂ut failed to replace the other school鈥檚 name:

Oops.
Other ASU missteps that include 鈥渕ultiple unsubstantiated public claims鈥 by ASU President Beverlee McClure in the wake of Ledonne鈥檚 banishment that he 鈥渉ad engaged in 鈥榟arassment,鈥 鈥榙irect and indirect threats,鈥 and 鈥榯errorism.鈥欌 The ACLU of Colorado said in its release that the university was unable to produce a single piece of evidence to substantiate those allegations during litigation.
鈥淏y summarily banning Danny from a public campus and falsely labeling him a security threat, without providing any opportunity to rebut the false allegations, the university deprived him of due process and unjustifiably retaliated against him for his constitutionally-protected criticism of university practices,鈥 said ACLU of Colorado Legal Director Mark Silverstein.
ACLU of Colorado cooperating attorney Reid Neureiter of Wheeler Trigg O鈥橠onnell LLP, who represented Ledonne on a pro bono basis, said he hopes ASU 鈥渨ill take appropriate steps in the future to ensure that any person subject to being barred from campus will receive fair notice and a reasonable opportunity to challenge the decision before an impartial decision-maker.鈥
For his part, Ledonne said he was satisfied with the settlement over what he described as 鈥渢he university鈥檚 heavy-handed attempt to discourage [him] and others who disagree with the administration from speaking out.鈥
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