Jonathan Turley (George Washington; Google Scholar), Oregon Law Professor Accuses Oregon Law Review of Anti-Israeli Discrimination:

The University of Oregon has long faced controversies over the alleged political bias on its campuses, including celebrating the career of a professor who physically attacked pro-life students as a model of activism. It has been criticized for monitoring off-campus speech and unconstitutionally censoring dissenting faculty. Now, Law Professor Ofer Raban is accusing the Law Review and school administrators of discriminating against an Israeli professor who was allegedly rejected for publication because of his association with an Israeli university.

Prof. Raban offered the following account:

The University of Oregon, the state's flagship public university, is presently investigating a claim of discrimination against an Israeli professor by the Oregon Law Review. Several law school administrators apparently knew of the discrimination, and a high-ranking administrator had even approved it. The target of the discrimination holds an American law degree and has been teaching intermittently in the U.S..

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. …

[W]e 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.

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