Law Schools

Law School Professor Courts Controversy With Tweets, Gets It

[Deep sigh]

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On Friday, University of Miami Law professor Daniel Ravicher tweeted out an allegation that he’d been fired because he “refuse[d] to censor [his] speech and apologize.”

https://twitter.com/danravicher/status/1327231485989048320?s=20

But, in a statement to Law.com the law school dean disputed that Ravicher had been fired:

“Professor Daniel Ravicher, a lecturer at the School of Law, has not been terminated, nor has he been removed from his course. We are not sure why he is saying or suggesting otherwise,” [Dean Anthony E. Varona] said in a statement.

So, what exactly is going on? Well, let’s back up a bit. Like so many things recently, it goes back to the election. Ravicher made several dubious claims over Twitter about election fraud and… well a lot of stuff. As faculty members said in a letter regarding Ravicher’s tweets, published in The Miami Hurricane:

On his Twitter account, Ravicher has promoted baseless claims about fraud in the presidential election, suggested a need to use lethal force against protesters after the election, compared calls for political accountability to the Holocaust, groundlessly accused law faculty of retaliating against students for their political views and made several uninformed claims about race, ethnicity and identity in the United States.

And those “uninformed claims about race, ethnicity and identity in the United States”?

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https://twitter.com/danravicher/status/1323844003104804864?s=20

And then there was this doozy:

https://twitter.com/danravicher/status/1323260297709260800?s=20

Yikes town. As the faculty letter goes on to note, they’re calling out what is — at a minimum — a serious lack of judgment:

These public social media posts demonstrate, at the very least, an egregious lack of professional judgment. While Ravicher’s unprofessional behavior may be defended as a matter of academic freedom or free speech, academic and free speech norms do not insulate lawyers from critique. To the contrary, the principles of academic freedom and free speech compel us to speak out against Ravicher’s promotion of disinformation, invocation of violence and racially derogatory commentary. We join the students, alumni and practicing attorneys voicing concern that these statements potentially reflect deeper failings.

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And students are upset that a professor said such things. As third-year law student Christian Pasciak told the Miami Hurricane:

“We cannot seek to silence everyone just because we disagree with them. That said, our professors are leaders who set the standard for our students,” Pasciak told The Hurricane. “If our law school’s goal is to truly be inclusive and to make students feel comfortable, how can we continue to write checks to a professor who thinks that all Black people are simply people who allow themselves to be victimized, as the professor’s tweets say.”

Pasciak added this type of sentiment towards the Black community stems back to Reconstruction after the civil war in an effort to disenfranchise newly freed slaves. Thus, he said this type of speech is “downright reprehensible.”

Ravicher told Law.com that as a result of the controversy, he had a call with Dean Varona and says he was told his contract wouldn’t be renewed if he didn’t stop the tweets and issue an apology. He also sticks by the line that he’s been fired:

Ravicher said he disputes the notion that he hasn’t been fired. “[That I’ve been fired] might not be true, technically speaking,” he said. “But when someone says you’re not going to be renewed and something might happen sooner, to me that’s being fired. What I’m trying to say is I’m quitting by refusing to do what they want.”

But, as lawyers know, technical differences are STILL DIFFERENCES, and those can and do translate into vastly difference legal remedies. However, that doesn’t get your story picked up by Laura Ingraham. There’s a whole cottage industry of right-wing talking heads weaponizing the First Amendment and complaining about how they’ve been silenced. Looks like that’s Ravicher’s plan after he’s “fired.”

Oh, no, he has another employment plan. He should ask Jones Day how that’s going.

https://twitter.com/danravicher/status/1324488017839575045?s=20

headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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