A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that it was OK for North Carolina State University to punish a professor for “uncollegiality” after he criticized a “diversity” question on student evaluations, and a diversity-oriented faculty search, and wrote a blog post about the increasingly “woke” nature of his field. This is the same federal appeals court that ruled on May 31 that it was OK for a university to send “bias response teams” after students for constitutionally protected speech that didn’t remotely constitute harassment or discrimination …

Its decision yesterday in Porter v. Board of Trustees of North Carolina State University conflicts with past First Amendment rulings said public employees’ speech doesn’t need to be civil or collegial to be protected by the First Amendment. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of a law enforcement employee who expressed regret that the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan had failed, saying “If they go for him again, I hope they get him.” The Supreme Court explained in that ruling that “the inappropriate or controversial character of a statement is irrelevant to the question whether it deals with a matter of public concern.” (See Rankin v. McPherson, 483 U.S. 378, 387 (1987)).