A legal challenge to an alleged no-hire agreement between Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has survived an important test. On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Catherine Eagles rejected the universities’ request to dismiss a lawsuit from an assistant professor of radiology at Duke who claimed that she’d been denied a job at North Carolina due to an alleged agreement that the two universities wouldn’t recruit from each others’ faculties.
The class-action suit brought by that professor, Danielle Seaman, alleges that the secret agreement was binding, with the intent to artificially suppress wages, and violates antitrust laws. The recent court decision includes a denial of state action immunity against antitrust liability, based on the defendants’ argument that they should be exempt from federal antitrust laws because a state university and health system is involved. Seaman’s attorney, Dean Harvey, said in a statement that the decision “confirmed that secret agreements in restraint of trade are not immune from the antitrust laws simply because a co-conspirator is a state employee.” A spokesperson for Duke declined comment, as did a spokesperson for North Carolina.
Opinions on Inside Higher Ed
Inside Higher Ed’s Blog U
Inside Higher Ed Careers
Hiring? Post A Job Today!
Browse Faculty Jobs
Browse Administrative Jobs
Browse Executive Administration Jobs
College Pages
Popular Right Now
How professors can and should combat linguistic prejudice in their classes (opinion)
How to write an effective diversity statement (essay)
Students focus too much on grades to the detriment of learning (essay)
Essay on the cover letter for academic jobs
Long-term online learning in pandemic may impact students' well-being
Racism fuels poor mental health outcomes for Black students
Live Updates: Latest News on Coronavirus and Higher Education
A Ph.D. student reviews and reassesses her #MeTooPhD story (opinion)
The benefits of focusing a class around one single text (opinion)
Expand commentsHide comments