A Federal Jury Was Needed to Protect the Rights of a Conservative Christian Professor

In case you were unaware Mike Adams won his lawsuit in federal court against the University of North Carolina-Wilmington.  Until 2000 Adams was a professing atheist and liberal who wrote and spoke publicly about his views.  In 2000 Adams converted to Christianity and over time became conservative politically.  Adams continued to speak out about his views publicly.  Adams contended and the jury agreed that his public speech should not be held against him by the school in determining promotion.  Adams contended and the jury agreed that faculty and administrators had held his public position regarding Christianity and conservative political positions against him in denying Adams promotion to full professor. 

I am a socially conservative Libertarian.  Luckily for me I have never had my political ideology held against me for purposes of denying me promotion or position of any type at any school.  At my current school my ideological position would never be questioned.  At other schools I can see my position be questioned if I espoused it in the classroom.  However, in public presentations and in proper non-classroom campus forums one's political ideological position is never grounds for denying position or promotion, so good for Mike Adams challenging the situation.  I do want to be clear about one thing, though Mike Adams has a right to his position in public, at a public school because of laws and court rulings, he should know to be careful in his official capacity (classroom, office, meetings, etc.) to remain neutral.  For my two cents remaining neutral is something that most faculty in most locations fail to do--myself included--because we are after all a bunch of highly educated, highly opinionated people.  So, we better just figure out how to get along.