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Lawsuit of the Day a Few Days Ago: The Pat Robertson Finger Case

Tuesday, December 4, 2007 3:45 PM - By David Lat

Pat Robertson middle finger flip bird Regent Law School Above the Law blog.jpg(Yes, this is old news. But as we explained earlier, today is Remedial Blogging Day at ATL.)

Surely you recall Adam M. Key, the 2L at Regent University School of Law who’s engaged in a public battle with the law school administration over free speech issues. For background on his story, in case you haven’t been following it, read this ABC News story. Or ATL’s two-part interview with Mr. Key, available here and here.

Anyway, even if Adam Key isn’t in law school right now — he’s been suspended — he is back in the news. From the ABA Journal:

A Regent University law student has sued the school for suspending him after he posted an online photo of school president Pat Robertson with his middle finger extended [above right]. Robertson was scratching his face with his middle finger in the photo, posted on student Adam Key’s Facebook page, but the gesture appeared to be obscene.

The suit, filed in federal court in Houston where Key lives, claims the school suspended Key without notice or an opportunity to be heard. The Virginian-Pilot puts the period of Key’s suspension at one year while the Tex Parte blog says it is two years.

More after the jump.

So what’s Key contending in his complaint? From the AP:

Adam M. Key, 23, claims in the federal suit that Regent officials violated his free speech and due process rights for expressing his “Christian religious and political opinions” when it suspended him in October….

“Pat Robertson can say anything he wants about anybody,” Key’s Houston attorney, Randall Kallinen, told The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk. “He has advocated the assassination of (Venezuelan President) Hugo Chavez and called for the city of Orlando to be destroyed by meteors and tornadoes. But when Adam Key makes a comment, he gets kicked out of school.”

Kallinen said that because the private university receives federal funds, it is required under the U.S. Higher Education Act to respect students’ freedom of religion and expression.

The lawsuit also alleges Key was “fraudulently induced” to attend Regent. “Adam relied on Regent’s many claims of religious liberty and speech” and the law school’s American Bar Association accreditation, the lawsuit states.

When we interviewed Mr. Key, we found him intelligent, thoughtful, and well-spoken. But one ATL tipster, who emailed us about the Key v. Robertson lawsuit, has doubts about the merits of the case:

First, fraudulent inducement claim is CLASSIC. Second, Google his attorney and look at all the nutty ACLU cases he’s filed.

But that’s just one reader’s opinion. Your thoughts are welcome in the comments.

P.S. Here’s the press release sent out by Adam Key’s attorney:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PAT ROBERTSON’S RELIGIOUS LAW SCHOOL SUED FOR VIOLATING CHRISTIAN FREEDOM OF SPEECH (the Robertson Finger case)

Today, Adam Key, a second year law student from Spring, Texas, sued Regent University and its president Pat Robertson in a Houston federal court for violating his right to religious free speech by kicking him out of Regent’s law school—a law school that promised Adam religious free speech. Pat Robertson has advocated murdering Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez; stated feminism encourages children-killing, witchcraft and lesbianism; likened Episcopalians, Presbyterians and Methodists to the Anti-Christ; predicted tornadoes, terrorist bombs, hurricanes and a meteor strike because of tolerance of homosexuality in Orlando; and stated “Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to the evangelical Christians.”

Initially Adam had posted a picture of Robertson as his Facebook profile page and then took it down at Regent’s request. Adam then wrote an eloquent critique of freedom of speech and Christianity and posted it to a Regent-only site. He was then suspended from law school without due process. Adam hopes to attend the University of Houston Law Center where he was previously accepted.

Regent 2L Sues Over Suspension for Robertson Web Post [ABA Journal]
Suspended student sues Pat Robertson, Regent U law school [Tex Parte Blog (Texas Lawyer)]
Suspended Regent student files suit against Pat Robertson [Virginian-Pilot]
Regent student suspended for posting Robertson picture files suit [Associated Press via Houston Chronicle]
Student in Trouble Over Web Posting [ABC News]

Update: For a less-than-optimistic assessment of Key’s case, see this PrawfsBlawg post, by Professor Howard Wasserman.

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Posted in: Adam Key, Free Speech, Law Schools, Regent University School of Law, Religion

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