A new law underlying a complaint filed by three terminated University of South Florida faculty members will likely be deemed unconstitutional, according to a local law professor.
As previously reported, Senate Bill 266, approved by Florida lawmakers and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, prevents faculty grievances from being appealed above the university president.
“I have no doubt that the court will find that the plaintiff's argument that this law violates existing collective bargaining agreements, which require a neutral fact finder to make the decision as to whether an employee of a university can be fired, will be upheld,” said Bob Jarvis, Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law professor.
Professor Jarvis
| Jarvis
Under SB 266, a public university president now has unfettered discretion to fire a university professor even if that university professor is tenured and even if that university professor has done nothing wrong.
In ending arbitration for employment disputes among university faculty, the plaintiffs argue that SB 266 violates their contractual and due process rights.
The three plaintiffs are David Braasch, Tamara McLaughlin and Lisana Mohamed.
"There was no need for SB 266," Jarvis told the Florida Record. "There was no crisis. It wasn't like arbitrators were making crazy decisions but this was part of Gov. DeSantis dismantling the alleged liberal-controlled, left-leaning perspective of university faculty."
A university president is not a neutral arbiter, according to the lawsuit.
"Rather, the arbitration ban causes university presidents to serve as both prosecutors, in that they are the people with ultimate authority to fire faculty members on behalf of the university, and judges, in that they are the final arbiters as to whether their own decisions are appropriate," the complaint states. "That inherent conflict violates due process.”
The lawsuit, filed in the Northern District of Florida, isn’t the first.
A professor and faculty union from the New College of Florida filed a similar lawsuit in state court after the New College of Florida denied tenure to Professor Hugo Viera-Vargas.
“These are Florida professors suing Florida University presidents over a Florida University's collective bargaining agreement so I don't see where there is a basis for them being in federal court,” Jarvis said in an interview. “I don't see that there is a Fifth Amendment basis for such a claim and there is a principle that federal courts should not hear cases that are more properly heard in state courts even if they technically have jurisdiction.”
Viera-Vargas did not respond to requests for comment.
"Under the Florida Constitution, as under all state constitutions and the US Constitution, we have Article one, Section10 that says the Florida legislature can never pass a bar impairing the obligation of contracts so any law that overturns or modifies an existing contract is per se, unconstitutional," Jarvis added.