Following up on my prior posts (links below):  NPR, A Public Law School Faces Trial Over Liberal Bias:

Praised by colleagues as smart, friendly and passionate about the
law, Teresa Wagner was a leading candidate when two jobs came open to
teach writing at the University of Iowa law school. An alumnus, she was
already working part-time at its writing center and received positive
reviews from students and a key committee.

But after she
interviewed with the faculty in 2007, one job went to someone without
teaching experience and the other wasn’t filled. She was passed over for
other jobs in the coming years. She now says she was blackballed
because of her legal work against abortion rights and will take her
complaint to a jury this week. The case is being closely watched in
higher education because of longstanding allegations of political bias
at left-leaning law schools. Conservatives have maintained for years
that they are passed over for jobs and promotions at law schools because
of their views, but formal challenges have been rare, in part because
of the difficulty of proving discrimination. Wagner’s case is considered
the first of its kind. …

At a federal trial that starts Monday in Davenport, Wagner will argue
that the law school faculty blocked her appointment because she had
opposed abortion rights, gay marriage and euthanasia while working as a
lawyer for the Family Research Council and the National Right to Life
Committee in Washington.

Wagner says the opposition to her was led
by professor Randall Bezanson, a law clerk for Justice Harry Blackmun
when he wrote the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion
in 1973 — an opinion Wagner spent her earlier career opposing. She says
46 of 50 faculty members who considered her appointment were Democrats,
while one was Republican. Wagner will offer as evidence an e-mail from a
school official who backed her candidacy warning the dean that some
opposed her “because they so despise her politics (and especially her
activism about it).” …

Walter Olson, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think
tank, said business conservatives with expertise in regulatory and
antitrust law are well-represented on faculties. But he said he would be
hard-pressed to name any professor at a non-religious school who
opposed the Roe decision before winning tenure.

• Walter Olson, Bias Against Conservative Law Profs: Wagner Case Heads Toward Trial
• Fox News,
  Conservative Passed Over for Job at University of Iowa Law School Seeks to Prove Liberal Bias
  
• Huffington Post, Teresa Wagner Lawsuit Claims University Of Iowa Passed Her Up For Jobs Because Of Political Views
• National Law Journal, Trial Opens in Job Applicant's Claim of Political Bias by Iowa Law
• St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Did Schools Pass Up This Teacher Because She Wasn't Liberal Enough?

Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:

• Unsuccessful Iowa Legal Writing Faculty Candidate Sues, Claiming Discrimination Due to Her Conservative Views (Jan. 29, 2009)
• Judge Dismisses Claim by Unsuccessful Iowa Legal Writing Faculty Candidate Alleging Discrimination Due to Her Conservative Views (Apr. 2, 2010)
• Unsuccessful
  Iowa Legal Writing Faculty Candidate Appeals Dismissal of Suit Claiming
  Discrimination Due to Her Conservative Views (July 13, 2010)
• 8th Circuit Re-institutes Discrimination Lawsuit by Unsuccessful Republican Faculty Candidate Against Iowa Law School Dean (Dec. 29, 2011)
• NY Times on Unsuccessful Republican Law Faculty Candidate's Discrimination Lawsuit Against Iowa (Jan. 10, 2012)