One of America’s preeminent pro-free speech legal groups has weighed in on the suspension of two Texas Tech University employees.
Jairo Fúnez-Flores, an assistant professor at Texas Tech’s College of Education, was suspended due to the professor’s controversial social media posts that the university described as “hateful, antisemitic, and unacceptable,” The Dallas Express previously reported. Fúnez-Flores’s posts were in defense of the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel. In March, the university suspended the professor with pay.
Texas Scorecard first reported that Funez-Flores had posted a quote on X from a Palestinian author: “Resist, my people, resist them. In Jerusalem, I dressed my wounds and breathed my sorrows and carried the soul in my palm for an Arab Palestine. I will not succumb to the ‘peaceful solution,’ never lower my flags until I evict them from my land.”
Fúnez-Flores also shared a post justifying the strike as “self-determination,” “resisting dehumanization,” and “justice.”
Despite the nature of Fúnez-Flores’s posts, not everyone agreed that he should have been suspended pending an investigation.
“By suspending Jairo Fúnez-Flores for his political commentary on social media, the university infringes on the right of faculty to comment as private citizens on major political issues,” Graham Piro with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) wrote in an email to The Dallas Express.
“This is a well-established right, and the university can’t violate it just because some take offense to what he had to say on his social media. The university also cannot use protected speech as a pretext to investigate faculty,” Piro added.
“Public institutions are bound by the First Amendment to respect and uphold the expressive rights of their students and faculty,” continued Piro. “It does appear that the social media posts in question, while offensive to some, are protected by the First Amendment. Texas Tech can’t target speech just because university administrators think that the speech is antithetical to the university’s values. That’s not how the First Amendment works.”
Piro noted that not everyone enjoys the same legal protections in Texas. “Faculty members enjoy academic freedom rights. Those same rights don’t necessarily apply to staff members, although Texas Tech should be very aware of how its public actions reflect on its commitment to its First Amendment obligations.”
The university announced in the wake of Fúnez-Flores’s suspension that “We take the First Amendment’s application to public universities seriously; however, we are also committed to providing a safe learning and working environment that is free from harassment, including antisemitic harassment, and will not tolerate behavior that crosses the line into harassment and interferes with or limits the ability of an individual to participate in the educational activities of Texas Tech University (TTU),” per Texas Scorecard.
The university’s statement also announced an investigation into discrimination, which they said was mandated by Title VI. “[The Office of Equal Opportunity at Texas Tech] will investigate whether any of the antisemitic sentiments expressed by Professor Fúnez-Flores’ social media comments have found their way into the classroom or the work environment and are deemed to be discriminatory harassment.”
In April, TTU stated that an investigation had determined that Fúnez-Flores did not violate TTU’s policy for discriminatory harassment in the classroom or work environment. Fúnez-Flores was able to return to his job on April 12.
The second TTU employee recently suspended due to concerning social media posts is Rudy Meixell, a TTU librarian.
Without referring to Meixell by name, Piro said, “Suspending a librarian because of his social media posts only raises more concerns that Texas Tech is targeting specific viewpoints. The university must recommit to upholding First Amendment rights, no matter the politics being expressed.”
Stop Antisemitism shared screenshots of what appears to be X posts from the librarian. One screenshot reportedly reads, “Hezbollah just launched multiple strikes. Zionism, the real barbarism, will be defeated.”
“It would be nice to have one major party in this country that doesn’t worship the ground Jews walk on,” another reads from March 7.
Meixell’s posts continued:
“F**k organized Jewry’s incessant accusations of antisemitism,” another screenshot of a May 22 post said. “As usual Weiss seems at least as concerned that Zionism is bad for the Jews as he is that it is just that bad.”
“F**k Greg Abbott and his speech rules to protect Jews from discomfort while the Jewish state commits genocide,” Meixell followed up six days later. “What happened to the conservative dismissal of ‘safe spaces?’”
Meixell’s bio on X reads: “As opinionated as I am insignificant. Irreligious agnostic. Populist right, per Pew’s quiz. Against US empire/anti-Zionist. Covid-19 vaxx mandate refugee in TX.”
On August 31, TTU stated that the university had suspended Meixell with pay pending an investigation. TTU Health Sciences Center issued a nearly identical statement to the university’s about Fúnez-Flores.
“Rudy Meixell, a unit manager in the library on the Lubbock campus at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, posted a series of social media comments that we were made aware of yesterday, August 30, 2024. We find his social media comments to be hateful, antisemitic, and unacceptable. These social media comments are antithetical to our values, including those found in System Regulation 01.05.”
“[The Office of Equal Opportunity] will investigate whether any of the antisemitic sentiments expressed by Meixell’s social media comments have found their way into the academic or the work environment and are deemed to be discriminatory harassment.”
No new actions in Fúnez-Flores or Meixell’s cases have been publicly reported as of September 23.