Professor Punished for Research

The Center for Individual Rights together with Jonathan Goldstein of Goldstein Law Partners, LLC, has filed suit against the University of Pittsburgh and several affiliated organizations for disciplining Dr. Norman Wang in response to a study that he published on the development of affirmative action over the last fifty years.  The publicly-funded university has violated long established First Amendment principles of academic freedom that are meant to ensure that universities are places of free inquiry and not narrow ideological conformity.

In March, Wang published a paper in the Journal of the American Heart Association, which analyzed the history of racial preferences in medical education.  The paper questioned the legality of using race in admission decisions and argued that racial preferences had not been effective in diversifying the medical profession.  Administrators at the School of Medicine condemned the paper, pressured the JAHA to retract the article, and disciplined Wang.

CIR filed suit in the Federal District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.  The suit asks the court to fully reinstate Wang to his teaching positions.  It also seeks damages for defamation from the University of Pittsburgh, the American Heart Association, and several administrators who have attacked Wang’s reputation as a scholar with entirely baseless accusations that he misused his sources.