Appeals Court Revives Political Bias Suit Against U. of Iowa

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit last week revived a lawsuit against Carolyn Jones, a University of Iowa law professor who was dean at the time of the incidents in the suit, by a woman who says she was not hired for several faculty jobs because of her political views. The woman who sued, Teresa R. Wagner, is a conservative who has worked with an anti-abortion group. Her suit noted that only 1 of the 50 faculty members at the law school is a registered Republican, and that she was advised not to tell a search committee that she had applied for a job at the Ave Maria School of Law because that institution is seen as conservative. The appeals court did not weigh in on the merits of Wagner's case, but said that there was enough evidence -- when viewed in the ways most favorable to her, as is the legal standard at that stage of a lawsuit -- that a lower court should not have dismissed the case. An Iowa spokesman declined to discuss the case with local reporters, saying that university policy bars discussion of current litigation.