D’MPSJ

DEFENDANTS’ MOTION FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT Page 1 Case 1:23-cv-00129-DAE Document 132 Filed 05/20/24 Page 6 of 19 Lowery claims he began chilling his speech in August 2022, when he began to fear that his speech activities would cause Defendants to refuse to reappoint him to his position at the Salem Center or to label his speech as uncivil or rude. [...] Lowery alleges that university officials (including Defendants McCombs Dean Lillian Mills and McCombs Associate Dean Ethan Burris) asked Professor Carlos Carvalho (Lowery’s friend and the Executive Director of the Salem Center) to counsel Lowery to “tone down” his speech, to stop telling donors not to give money to the University, to “work” on speech that the DEFENDANTS’ MOTION FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY. [...] First, Lowery allegedly feared that his affiliation with the Salem Center would not be renewed, including his role with the Policy Research Lab within the Center, leading to the loss of his stipend and reduced research opportunities. [...] In the discovery that followed the Court’s denial of Defendants’ motion to dismiss Count One in the Original Complaint, the evidence uncovered has only served to confirm these declarations and to demonstrate that no adverse employment action has ever been threatened. [...] The absence of any allegation of a threatened adverse employment action, together with the lack of any evidence to show that such a threat was made, means that Defendants are entitled to judgment on the chilled-speech claim.