“Texas professor reinstated after firing over Palestine talk says ‘I didn’t do anything wrong’.” The First Amendment lives, on the 239th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution.

by Bob Schwartz

239th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution in 1787

The U.S president is making a BIG DEAL of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. This is bizarre. The Declaration set off a revolution against a TYRANT and tyranny, so it is ironic that this comes from a tyrant or at least a tyranny wannabe.

The real anniversary we should be celebrating every year is the signing (1787) or ratification (1788) of the U.S. CONSTITUTION and its added BILL OF RIGHTS. This is a president who has done everything but publicly burn a copy of the Constitution, along with copies of any inconvenient laws. Soon we may see American history that identifies some of the founders and signers as “too woke” who should be eliminated from our schools. Thankfully, there are still judges, including those appointed by this president (see below), who are sworn to uphold the Constitution and the laws. The Constitution, The Bill of Rights, and the First Amendment live.

Texas professor reinstated after firing over Palestine talk says ‘I didn’t do anything wrong’

Timothy Pratt
The Guardian
Thu 14 May 2026

Texas philosophy professor Idris Robinson said he was breathing a bit easier this week nearly halfway through what he called “the most stressful month of fatherhood so far”.

That’s because Robinson was faced with losing his paycheck from Texas State University beginning 31 May, along with his academic affiliation, after he was fired for a talk he gave in another state on what he called “the liberation of Palestine”. The incident would have made it nearly impossible for him to find another job teaching – all with a 16-month-old son at home.

But then Trump-appointed district court Judge Alan Albright ruled in his favor this week and ordered Texas State to continue paying him for another year or until his lawsuit against the school reaches an outcome, whichever comes first. The state “put Dr. Robinson’s career in grave danger by violating his First Amendment rights”, Albright wrote in his decision.

“It’s the right decision,” Robinson said in an interview. “I didn’t do anything wrong. I do my job and I do it well.”

The complaint, reported by the Guardian in March, alleges that the school violated Robinson’s constitutional rights by ending his contract after a 2024 talk he gave in North Carolina on Palestine and Israel. A fight broke out before he could finish the talk. Neither Robinson nor anyone else at the event mentioned his job at the university.

Toward the end of the hour-long hearing on Tuesday, Albright highlighted that “the state really hasn’t made an effort to argue that the speech that the plaintiff gave [wasn’t] in some role or another a motivating factor” in the university’s decision to terminate his contract, according to Yarden Azoulay Katz, a member of Robinson’s legal team who attended.

The decision in favor of continuing to pay Robinson is a “shot across the bow for many universities who have violated free speech rights”, said Zach Greenberg, director of Faculty Legal Defense at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (Fire), an organization with local counsel involved in the case. “It bodes well for academic freedom.”

The university’s termination of Robinson’s contract was “an adverse action, carried out for an unlawful reason”, said Samantha Harris, his attorney. The judge’s decision not only made Robinson’s near future a lot brighter – “it also showed there’s a substantial likelihood of success with regard to Dr Robinson’s claim of first amendment retaliation,” said Harris, who has worked on such claims for two decades.

Prior to this incident, Robinson had four years of stellar performance reviews, according to the complaint.

Robinson pointed out that others in academia have been disciplined for speech on Palestine, as well as other subjects, such as Charlie Kirk’s killing.

“I hope [the judge’s decision] sets a precedent – so people see they can stand up and fight, see things out to the end,” he said.

The philosopher, who has recently published a book, The Revolt Eclipses Whatever the World Has to Offer while fighting the university’s actions, has centered much of his research on societies in conflict and revolution.

He believes the US is in its third “Red Scare”, after those prior to the first world war and after the second world war, which focused on perceived threats from communism. “Repression around speech is part of the new Red Scare,” he said. “Being a Black, leftist philosopher, I’m a target.”

“But it’s not just ‘F this communist’, or ‘F this terrorist’. It’s also good old-fashioned racism,” he added – noting that online harassment after his case went public has included such comments as: “I hope this [N-word]’s whole family commits suicide.”

A few weeks ago, someone texted his wife: “Idris f’d up.” He has no idea how they got her number.

Nonetheless, he said, “I’m still taking up space in their minds – so I’m winning.”

Robinson also allowed that the experience has had a chilling effect on his scholarship. He wrote two chapters about Israel and Palestine in his new book after Texas State began its disciplinary proceedings – and “deliberately avoided using the words ‘Israel’ or ‘Palestine’ and instead referred vaguely to ‘the holy land’ … to avoid further scrutiny”, he noted in an affidavit accompanying the lawsuit.

Robinson emphasized that the talk that apparently led Texas State to discipline him “wasn’t about me giving my opinion … it was about my analysis of what’s right in front of me, about trying to clarify this world historical event” of 7 October and its aftermath. Then, he said, “everyone made this big mess about a talk I didn’t even finish”.

And though the days leading up to this week’s hearing were stressful, he said, “it’s nowhere near as stressful as being a father in Gaza who can’t feed or protect his children”.

While the lawsuit takes its course, Robinson said he’d like to “concentrate on philosophy”– including a book on Austrian-British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, the mid-20th-century thinker on logic, language and political thought.

As for Albright’s decision: “I hope it helps other academics who have been facing disciplinary actions to fight on. Even in a state like Texas, you can win.”