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The First Amendment has long protected an educator’s ability to speak out on public issues affecting their institutions. This is especially important because educators are the ones most likely to be well-informed about how their schools operate, and the public is best served when they are free to share their perspectives.

Lars Jensen, a math professor at Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno, Nevada, is one such educator. He cares deeply about preparing his students for the world they’ll enter after graduating. That’s why, in September 2020, Jensen criticized what he saw as new watered-down math standards his college implemented. 

Jensen distributed handouts critical of the standards to colleagues during a break at a campus event, but one of the deans asked Jensen not to pass out his fliers. After he continued to do so without interrupting the session, Jensen received two consecutive unsatisfactory annual performance evaluations, and administrators sought to terminate his employment. On October 1, 2021, FIREsent a letter to Truckee Meadows on behalf of Jensen and explained that his actions were protected by the First Amendment.

Jensen ended up keeping his job but sued in January 2022, asking the court to order the college to expunge the negative records from his employment file and change his performance evaluations to “excellent.” 

After Jensen lost in the district court, FIREstepped in to argue his appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.