Jury Says Professor Was Wrongly Fired

[steven johnson]

A jury found on Thursday that the University of Colorado had wrongfully dismissed a professor who drew national attention for an essay in which he called some victims of the Sept. 11 attacks "little Eichmanns."

But the jury, which deliberated for a day and a half, awarded only $1 in damages to the former professor, Ward L. Churchill, a tenured faculty member at the university's campus in Boulder since 1991 who was chairman of the ethnic studies department.

While the panel agreed with the argument that an environment of political intolerance for Mr. Churchill's views was a factor in his firing, Mr. McConnellogue, the university spokesman, contended that its decision to deny him financial damages also sent a message - that Mr. Churchill was not necessarily a figure to be revered, either.
"The jury's award is some vindication," he said.

On Sept. 12, 2001, Mr. Churchill wrote an essay in which he argued that the United States had brought the terrorist attacks on itself. He said that some of those working in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 were not innocent bystanders but "formed a technocratic corps at the very heart of America's global financial empire." He described the financial workers as "little Eichmanns," a reference to Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi who has been called the architect of the Holocaust.


http://mobile.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/us/03churchill.xml

[rfranklin]

1. I hear heads exploding in Freeperville...

This was the guy that they used to villify the Democrats when they were in paroxysms of joy over the 9/11 attack.

[DrDan]

2. billo's head is certainly a-spinnin'

He was one of the loudest critics.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Wonder how many appeals it will take before he gets his job back.