Two students sue Yale Law administrators for alleged retaliation in Amy Chua case - Yale Daily News
Madelyn Kumar, Contributing Photographer
Two unnamed Yale Law School students filed a complaint Monday against three Law School administrators and the University for allegedly “blackball[ing]” them from job opportunities after they refused to endorse a statement in the ongoing investigation against Law Professor Amy Chua.
The students, referred to as Jane and John Doe throughout the lawsuit, sued the University and Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken, Law School Associate Dean Ellen Cosgrove and Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Yaseen Eldik on the grounds of breach of contract, intentional interference with prospective business relationships and defamation, among others. The complaint — a copy of which was obtained by the News — was filed in the United States District Court of Connecticut, and requests damages of at least $150,000.
“Two Yale Law School deans, along with Yale Law School’s Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, worked together in an attempt to blackball two students of color from job opportunities as retaliation for refusing to lie to support the University’s investigation into a professor of color,” the complaint reads.
University spokesperson Karen Peart wrote in an email to the News that “the lawsuit is legally and factually baseless, and the University will offer a vigorous defense.”
The Law School’s investigation into Chua’s behavior was first made public in April 2021, after the News reported that she was hosting private gatherings in her New Haven home — which she shares with her husband, currently-suspended law professor Jed Rubenfeld — despite having agreed in 2019 to cease all out-of-class interactions with students due to allegations of her misconduct. After Law School administrators were informed of these gatherings, including from a 20-page dossier that was compiled by a law student with personal knowledge of the gatherings, the Law School revoked Chua’s ability to lead a first-year small group.
The ensuing controversy between Chua and Law School administrators gained national attention and was covered by the New York Times, the New Yorker, The Atlantic and New York Magazine.
The Monday complaint says that Jane and John Doe were the subjects of a 20-page dossier of emails and text messages which became central to the Chua investigation.
According to the complaint, when the Law School administration became aware of the dossier, Cosgrove and Eldik pressured the two students to substantiate the claims in the dossier by submitting a formal complaint against Chua. The complaint claims that the dossier, and by extension the complaint, would have contained “knowingly and materially false statements.” The lawsuit further alleges that after the students denied the contents of the dossier and declined to sign onto the statement against Chua, Cosgrove and Eldik called the students on a daily basis during one week in April 2021, saying that the two had a “moral obligation” to “future generations of students” to make the statement against Chua.
The lawsuit also states that Eldik told Jane Doe that the dossier would likely end up in “every judge’s chamber,” keeping her from receiving job opportunities if she did not comply with the Chua investigation.
Chua said that the issue was “absolutely not about me. I am just trying to put this whole horrific nightmare behind me and I wish it would just go away… I don’t ever want to speak of it again.”
Still, she went on to say that she has maintained a “friendly but distant relationship” with the two unnamed students since news of the dossier came to light, but that she has continued to offer herself as a mentor to them only if “there was no one else for them to talk to.”
After the two students ultimately refused to endorse the statement against Chua, the lawsuit alleges that Gerken and Cosgrove spoke with an “esteemed law professor and expert in constitutional law” who already employed the two students as research assistants, and attempted to dissuade him from hiring the students for the prestigious Coker Fellowship, annually offered to select third-year law students. The lawsuit alleges that Gerken and Cosgrove cited Jane and John Doe’s “lack of candor” regarding the dossier as reason for the professor not to hire them. Neither of the students were ultimately hired as Coker Fellows.
Multiple sources have confirmed that the constitutional law professor in question is Paul Kahn, who could not immediately be reached for comment.
Eldik and Cosgrove have already gained national attention this semester, after reports revealed that they had urged a student to send out a pre-drafted apology email after the student sent an invitation to a “trap house”-themed party that some students found to be racially insensitive.
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source: https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2021/11/15/two-students-sue-yale-law-administrators-for-alleged-retaliation-in-amy-chua-case/
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