Peter Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars, has an update on the case of law professor Scott Gerber, who was told by Ohio Northern University that he “had to resign or be fired,” in this post. Gerber’s ideological crimes are many: He admires Justice Clarence Thomas, disagrees with the “diversity” agenda, and dares to say that his institution might be violating the law with its preference policies, inter alia. Gerber holds tenure at ONU, but no matter. When academic leftists want someone gone, nothing can stand in their way.

Wood provides some deep background on ONU’s efforts at ridding itself of a wrong-thinking professor. He writes:

Gerber’s criticism of critical race theory and racial favoritism in faculty hiring were well known and were in sharp opposition to positions taken by ONU. It is likely that this was a factor in the effort to drive him out, but if so, ONU was faced with the problem that Gerber’s opinions on racial preferences were securely protected as a matter of academic freedom.

The school hired a law firm to “investigate” Gerber. You might think that’s a waste of money for a small, private university, but those who head such institutions have a very free hand to spend institutional resources on personal whims. Finding nothing of substance, the law school’s dean resorted to accusing him of a lack of “collegiality.”

But, as Wood points out, “collegiality” is not grounds for dismissal.

To my knowledge, Gerber has not yet chosen to file suit against ONU, but I hope he will do so. As I see it, ONU has violated its contract with him, and the officials responsible for his astonishing removal from campus, replete with armed guards, have committed the tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress.

I recently wrote for the Martin Center about the appalling case of Professor Matthew Garrett of Bakersfield College, whom intolerant zealots there managed to get terminated for his unwoke views. One of the people involved was careless enough to remark on how it was necessary to “cull the herd” to eliminate faculty members with unacceptable beliefs.

As the Gerber case suggests, attempts at campus herd-culling continue.