Prof. Raban offered the following account:
The events unfolded in 2024, after an Oregon Law Review editor recommended the publication of an article written by the Israeli professor. Conceding the article’s merits, a second law review editor rejected the recommendation because the author was a faculty member at an Israeli university. The law review management agreed, claiming that publishing the article would be perceived as an endorsement of Israel in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—although the article dealt with environmental law and had nothing to do with that conflict.
When the original reviewer objected that this may amount to unlawful discrimination, the matter was taken to a high-ranking law school official. A meeting was held, and the official reportedly gave the green light to the discrimination. At least two law school administrators, possibly more, were aware of the stated basis for the rejection and connived in it. A concerned member of the law review (who did not attend the meeting) was told that the law school’s administration had cleared the discrimination.
…The University of Oregon’s Office of Investigations and Civil Rights Compliance has been investigating the matter since February, with little to show for it. To date, as far as we know, no action has been taken against any official at the law review or the law school, and the sole action by the university has been a muted request for anti-bias training for new members of the Oregon Law Review.
If true, the account is a shocking exercise of discrimination based on national origin and a rejection of core values of intellectual exchange in higher education. As Professor Raban noted, The Ninth Circuit has long barred “discrimination by proxy” where “the defendant enacts a law or policy that treats individuals differently on the basis of seemingly neutral criteria that are so closely associated with the disfavored group that discrimination on the basis of such criteria is, constructively, facial discrimination against the disfavored group.” Davis v. Guam, 932 F.3d 822, 837 (9th Cir. 2019). He also cites Pac. Shores Props., LLC v. City of Newport Beach, 730 F.3d 1142, 1160 (9th Cir. 2013) (“In a case of proxy discrimination the defendant discriminates against individuals on the basis of criteria that are almost exclusively indicators of membership in the disfavored group.”). He adds that the record of the University of Oregon could offer further evidence to support a finding of discrimination:
Unfortunately, open discrimination against Israelis is the unsurprising culmination of messages emanating from the highest levels at the University of Oregon. Like many other institutions, the University experienced anti-Israel demonstrations that included the by-now familiar “from the river to the sea” banners and other denials of Israel’s right to exist. The University of Oregon’s response to these protests has been a shameful capitulation. A 2024 agreement between the university and the protestors included the issuance of a statement by the University of Oregon President calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza (a position long advocated by Hamas); the creation of two new faculty positions (presumably tailored to the ideological preferences of the demonstrators); and a taskforce that would consider the university’s economic divestment from Israel.
This February, four University of Oregon departments (Sociology, Anthropology, Religious Studies, and Women’s Gender and Sexuality), along with one University Institute (the Global Studies Institute) and one academic center (the Global Justice Program) co-sponsored and paid for a visit to the university by a pro-Palestinian activist who denies Israel’s right to exist (which passes for the same thing in some circles), had celebrated the October 7 atrocities, and has since declared that she stands by that sentiment.
Again, we have not heard the opposing side from the University of Oregon. However, the account of Professor Raban is deeply disturbing and should be a concern for not just the university but the legislature.
Kudos: Reason