Following up on my previous post, Inside The University Of Pennsylvania's Precedent-Setting Effort To Revoke Tenure From Law Prof Amy Wax:  Vox, This Penn Professor Has Been Offending Minorities For Years. Will Tenure Save Her?: 

At the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, a rare academic event is taking place: The school is attempting to revoke tenure from an endowed professor. Rarer still is the reason. Cases of professors losing tenure are often due to sexual or financial misconduct, but Amy Wax is facing sanction for racist and sexist statements made publicly and privately.

Wax, a lawyer and neurologist who started her career at the solicitor general’s office under Presidents Reagan, H.W. Bush, and Clinton, has become something of a standard-bearer for the right’s war on wokeness — and a confounding case study in the pitched arguments over academic freedom, tenure, and higher education. …

Wax’s case notwithstanding, a broad weakening of tenure protections would almost certainly harm more left-wing professors than right, given the political makeup of university faculty and the number of universities in Republican-led states. …

Wax is one professor at one law school, but her case is a bizarre and frustrating subplot in the larger story of higher education and free speech — a narrative where, on the one hand, broad protections for teachers and professors are gutted in conservative states, but where, on the other, those same free speech principles being targeted are invoked to shield one of the right’s more distinguished, and offensive, voices. …

Maybe the best description of the problems with Wax’s belief system inadvertently comes from her. Describing her problems with “wokeness,” she called it an “an all-encompassing, self-affirming, self-enclosed worldview that has an answer to absolutely everything.” …

But listening to two dozen hours of interviews with Wax, this is exactly the mental architecture she has erected. She uses a shifting combination of race, gender, and nationality to explain every nook and cranny of human life, from the litter she sees on the sidewalk to the inadequacy of Malaysian plane crash investigations. …

Wax recently stated on a podcast that if she faced any sanctions from the disciplinary process, she would pursue legal action against the university for breach of contract. She has already counter-filed a grievance against Ruger, which will likely add months to her case.

As her case waits for a resolution, Wax might perhaps use that time to reflect on how things got here. If you rewind to 2017, to that column advising “inner-city blacks” and “Hispanic immigrants” on bourgeois values, Wax told readers: “Go the extra mile for your employer,” “be neighborly,” and “avoid coarse language in public.”

Since then, she’s been in a five-year dispute with her employer, insulted group after group of Americans, and said about Indian immigrants on national television that “their country is a shithole.” Maybe other groups were never the problem.

Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:

• Wax & Alexander: Paying The Price For Breakdown Of The Country's Bourgeois Culture (Aug. 13, 2017)
• Reaction To Law Profs' Op-Ed On The Breakdown Of The 'Bourgeois Culture' (Aug. 25, 2017)
• Penn Law Students Try To Ban Amy Wax From Teaching Civil Procedure Due To Her Breakdown Of The Bourgeois Culture Op-Ed (Sept. 10, 2017)
• Controversy Over Law Profs' Op-Ed On The Breakdown Of The 'Bourgeois Culture' Shifts From Penn To San Diego (Sept. 21, 2017)
• More Law Prof Reactions To The Wax & Alexander Op-Ed On The Breakdown Of The 'Bourgeois Culture' (Sept. 22, 2017)
• Reynolds: It Is Time Academics Preach the Virtues They Practice (Sept. 26, 2017)
• Penn Alumni Speak Out Against Breakdown Of The 'Bourgeois Culture' Op-Ed (Sept. 26, 2017)
• Wax: The Closing Of The Academic Mind (Feb. 19, 2018)
• Penn Dean Denies Amy Wax's Claim That He Asked Her To Take Leave Due To Controversial Op-Ed (Feb. 21, 2018)
• Heather McDonald: The Penn Law School Mob Scores A Victory (Mar. 19, 2018)
• Amy Wax: The University Of Denial — Aggressive Suppression Of The Truth Is A Central Feature Of American Higher Education (Mar. 24, 2018)
• Amy Wax Controversy Drags Penn Law Into Free-Speech Dilemma (July 27, 2019)
• Penn Law Removes Statement On RBG’s Death After Inclusion Of Amy Wax Quote Sparked Outrage (Sept. 29, 2020)
• Penn Law Dean Ruger Responds To Comments Made By Professor Wax (Jan. 6, 2022)
• Debate Intensifies Over Potential Discipline For Penn Law Prof Amy Wax (Jan. 15, 2022)
• Penn Law Dean Starts Process That Could Lead To Sanctions On Professor Amy Wax (Jan. 19, 2022)
• More Commentary On The Amy Wax Controversy At Penn (Part 1) (Jan. 25, 2022)
• More Commentary On The Amy Wax Controversy At Penn (Part 2) (Jan. 31, 2022)
• Penn Law Dean Ted Ruger Requests Faculty Senate Impose ‘Major Sanction’ Against Tenured Professor Amy Wax (July 18, 2022)
• Amy Wax Raises Over $125,000 To Defend Against ‘Major Sanction’ By Penn; Academic Freedom Alliance Calls For 'Complete Exoneration' (July 25, 2022)
• A Response To Penn Dean Ruger’s Letter Calling For A Major Sanction Against Professor Amy Wax (Aug. 4, 2022)
• Are Contributions To Amy Wax's Legal Defense Fund Tax Deductible? (Sept. 5, 2022)
• Amy Wax Submits 59-Page Memo Seeking Postponement Of Penn Disciplinary Proceedings, Citing Cancer Treatment (Sept. 20, 2022)
• post, Facing Major Sanctions, Amy Wax Files Grievance Against Penn Law Dean Ted Ruger (Jan. 27, 2023)