University of Oregon ordered to cover legal fees after settling First Amendment lawsuit

The University of Oregon will pay approximately $191,000 to cover legal expenses in Gilley v. Stabin, following the settlement of a First Amendment lawsuit filed by Portland State University professor Bruce Gilley. 

The ruling, delivered by U.S. District Judge John V. Acosta on June 17, comes after Gilley secured a preliminary injunction in July 2024 and reached a settlement with the university in March.

The Institute for Free Speech issued a press release on Tuesday announcing the latest outcome. 

Judge Acosta ordered the university’s insurer, United Educators, to pay $43,930 to the Angus Lee Law Firm and $147,070 to IFS. The university had already incurred $533,000 in internal legal expenses, bringing the total cost of the case to at least $724,000.

Gilley, a tenured professor at Portland State, has drawn national attention for his involvement in campus speech debates. In 2017, following backlash from academics, the journal Third World Quarterly retracted his controversial essay “The Case for Colonialism.” 

The National Association of Scholars republished the article in 2018. Then in 2020, Gilley drew criticism for organizing a “Critiques of BLM” reading group.

[RELATED: Retracted pro-colonialism article given new life]

The current case began in June 2022, when Gilley replied to a University of Oregon Division of Equity and Inclusion Twitter post by tweeting, “All men are created equal.” University officials subsequently blocked him from the @UOEquity account, prompting Gilley to file suit in August 2022, alleging viewpoint discrimination in a public forum.

In July 2024, the court granted a preliminary injunction. The court rejected the university’s argument that it could block posts deemed “hateful” or “off-topic,” and found that Gilley faced a credible threat of censorship. 

The injunction barred the university from blocking or “hiding, muting, or deleting posts by user @BruceDGilley” for viewpoint-based reasons.

Rather than proceed to a final judgment, the parties entered a settlement on March 26. The agreement required the university to revise its social media policies to clarify that comments “must not be blocked or deleted based on viewpoint, even if that viewpoint can be viewed by some as ‘offensive,’ ‘racist,’ or ‘hateful.’” 

The policy still permits the university to remove posts that violate the law, such as incitement to violence or direct threats.

[RELATED: Free speech surges on college campuses: POLL]

In a press release from March, Gilley described the agreement as “a significant victory for free speech in the digital age,” stating that “universities cannot silence viewpoints they disagree with on their official social media platforms.”

Angus Lee, Gilley’s local counsel, added, “When government entities create public forums online, they cannot pick and choose which constitutionally protected viewpoints are allowed to participate in those forums.”

The settlement did not include monetary damages, but the recent fee ruling ensured Gilley would bear no personal cost for defending his First Amendment rights.

Gilley declined to comment, and the University of Oregon had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication. This story will be updated if a response is received.