UK professor sues school for violating free speech rights over Israel comments
A University of Kentucky professor is suing the school after it reassigned him and launched an investigation in July following comments he made related to Israel, including creating a petition calling for its dismantling.
The lawsuit filed in federal district court Nov. 13 by the professor, Ramsi Woodcock, said his suspension “violates his First Amendment right of freedom of expression and his right to procedural due process,” discriminates against him, threatens the principles of U.S. government and degrades the school’s quality of education.
Woodcock, a tenured full professor in UK’s J. David Rosenberg College of Law, told the Herald-Leader Friday this instance of his speech comes from research conclusions about Israel and colonization.
He said the impact of his suspension and reassignment has caused a chilling effect within the college of law, preventing students and other faculty from speaking out, and the school’s investigation into his conduct is unprecedented.
“The problem here is that the university is abusing anti-discrimination structures that were put in place to address real problems of discrimination,” Woodcock said. “It’s abusing those structure to engage in political persecution of speech that is obviously political and research-related in nature and obviously protected by the First Amendment.
“And it’s doing it apparently because the president of the university disagrees with the content of my views,” he continued.
“What university presidents are supposed to do when they disagree with the research conclusions of faculty members is talk to the faculty member, hold a seminar, publish an article,” Woodcock said. “... The way we deal with intellectual disagreement about important matters of public policy is we debate and discuss. We don’t try to fire each other, we don’t ban each other from campus, and we don’t suspend each other from teaching.”
The university reassigned Woodcock July 18 for circulating an online petition that demanded “every country in the world make war on Israel immediately until such time as Israel has submitted permanently and unconditionally to the government of Palestine.”
The website and petition, Woodcock said, are the conclusions of his research that show Israel is the last colonizing force in the West practicing apartheid and committing genocide. He said his speech isn’t just about the First Amendment; it’s about justice for those in Palestine.
Woodcock is still employed by the university but has been “reassigned” pending the outcome of an investigation, said UK Spokesperson Jay Blanton in an email to the Herald-Leader.
Woodcock said he was blocked from teaching two courses he was set to teach this fall on antitrust and secure transactions.
He said he hasn’t been allowed to attend faculty meetings or enter the law school since July, has not supervised students and has been ostracized by some of his colleagues.
“If someone’s views as stated threaten the safety and well-being of the university’s students and staff, we are obligated to protect our community and our people,” Blanton said, reiterating a statement made in July by UK President Eli Capilouto. “That’s very clear under Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964. We have an obligation to find out if that’s the case. That’s why there is an investigation.”
A review by outside legal counsel into Woodcock is ongoing. Blanton did not clarify when it would conclude. In July, the school requested “accelerated findings” from the review.
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on race, color or national origin in programs or activities that receive federal funding, like a public university.
According to Woodcock’s lawsuit, the part of the Civil Rights Act the school is using as the basis for its investigation doesn’t apply to his case.
“Title VI does not and cannot constitutionally prohibit criticism of Israel,” the lawsuit said. “... To the extent that the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance known for a non-legal binding meaning for antisemitism) definition prohibits calling for the dismantling of colonial state structures, prohibits legal scholars from debating the contours of the right of self-determination, prohibits allegations of race discrimination, and prohibits allegations of genocide, the IHRA definition is unconstitutional.”
Gadeir Abbas, an attorney for the Conucil on American-Islamic Relations which is representing Woodcock, said if the professor had expressed the same viewpoint about Canada, Mexico, the United States of even Kentucky, he likely wouldn’t have been punished in the same way.
“In every court where they’ve been considered, these special rules about Israel have been found illegal, a clear violation of the free speech clause in the First Amendment,” Abbas said. “... It’s the basic free speech clause principle that (says) the government can’t censor one viewpoint because they don’t like it or prefer another viewpoint. And that’s exactly what they’re doing to Professor Woodcock.”
Before the complaint and request for injunctive relief begins, the document starts with a quote from a 2016 law review article written by UK General Counsel William Thro: “Freedom prohibits the prescription of political orthodoxy.”
“Defendants Capilouto and Thro have made public statements acknowledging their awareness of the danger to education itself of restricting faculty speech, and the importance to the University of academic freedom is acknowledged explicitly in the University’s policies,” the lawsuit said.
A number of nationwide groups with special interest in free speech — including the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, and the American Association of University Professors — sided with Woodcock when he was reassigned this summer.
“Our view of academic freedom — consistent with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and explicitly outline in our Governing Regulations — is that our faculty have a right to speak about their research and scholarship within their area of expertise,” Blanton said. “That right, however, doesn’t extend to creating a hostile environment for people. That is the question that has been raised. And that is what an investigation, from an expert, outside counsel, will help the university determine.”
In 2023, Gov. Andy Beshear established an Antisemitism Task Force to conduct a review of antisemitism across the state. At a meeting in 2024, the task force reported rates of antisemitic incidents had more than doubled from 2022 to 2024.
In April, a joint resolution in the General Assembly directed Kentucky’s higher education institutions to “combat antisemitism.”
Also this spring, Kentucky universities told legislators they were complying with a bill that banned diversity, equity and inclusion policy and practices, including those “designed or implemented to promote or provide preferential treatment or benefits to individuals on the basis of religion, sex, color, or national origin,” according to the law.
This story was originally published November 14, 2025 at 3:27 PM.
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