Professor Censored Over Mock Land Acknowledgment Speaks Out Against University ‘Orthodoxy’ After Court Win
30th September 2026
A Washington state computer science professor who won a First Amendment lawsuit against his university over its response to his mock land acknowledgement says the campus culture that fueled the controversy remains firmly entrenched.
“It’s kind of scary. They broke the law. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the “9th Circuit said you broke the law, and they’re saying, ‘Well, we think we behaved appropriately,’” Stuart Reges, the professor, told the Daily Signal in an interview Monday.
Reges sued the University of Washington, claiming it discriminated against his viewpoint when he published the mock land acknowledgement in a syllabus. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled in his favor, and the university agreed earlier this month to pay $600,000 to settle the case, without admitting wrongdoing.