Miami Law Prof Weighs In On Controversy Over Colleague's Pro-Trump Tweets

Following up on my previous posts (links below):  Michael Froomkin (Miami), Thoughts on L’Affaire Ravicher:

Daniel Ravicher started and runs a successful entrepreneurship clinic (the “Startup Practicum”) at the University of Miami School of Law.  His office happens to be in the same pod as mine, so back in the days when people saw people I would see him from time to time. Like an increasing number of the people who teach students in law these days, Ravicher is not a tenured member of the faculty, and indeed was not hired for his scholarship. Instead he was hired for his skills, and has a term renewable contract.

He’s recently taken to social media — and even Fox TV — to claim he’s been fired for his pro-Trump tweets and other speech, or is about to be, or may not have his contract renewed when it expires. As far as I have been able to ascertain, at least the first two of these claims are simply false. The fate of the third lies well in the future.

While Ravicher has behaved badly — lying about your employer counts as behaving badly in my book — the University has, with one exception (discussed rather far below), behaved quite well, and held, so far at least, to its fundamental commitments to academic freedom. ...

From the narrow perspective of keeping his job, Ravicher’s biggest problem is that he’s going around saying something false about his employer, which damages the enterprise’s reputation.  I’d put the rest of his statements under rubrics of bad taste, stupidity, and error, but none of that is a firing offense, at least if you do it on your own time and in your own name.

From the broader perspective, it looks to me like Ravicher’s problem is that he’s bought into a narrative in which he is, or wishes to become, the heroic victim of the PC Police. Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for all the rest of us, the University has failed to actually martyr him.  And, so far, other than lying about it, he’s not, in my free-speech-supporting view, done anything else to trigger it.

I’m not Ravicher’s buddy, but if I were then I’d tell him that when you are in a hole, you should stop digging.  He ought, I think, to take a week or two off Twitter to allow himself, and everyone else, to calm down.

Update:

• ABA Journal, Has Law Prof Been Fired Over Tweets? He Says It Might Not Be Technically True—Yet
• Above the Law, Law School Professor Courts Controversy With Tweets, Gets It

Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:

• Students Express Concerns Over Miami Law Professor's Twitter Support For Trump In Presidential Election
• Miami Law Faculty Condemns Colleague's 'Egregious Lack Of Professional Judgment' In Pro-Trump Tweets
• Miami Law Professor Says He Was Fired Over Tweets. The University Disagrees.