Penn law prof Amy Wax asks for delay of disciplinary proceedings for her cancer treatment

University of Pennsylvania Law professor Amy Wax has asked to postpone the process that could result in discipline against her as she battles cancer, according to a 59-page filing with the university.

Wax’s lawyer, David Shapiro, also contends in the filing to Vivian L. Gadsden, chair of Penn’s faculty senate, which is overseeing the proceedings, that Wax has been treated unfairly and that the charges against her present a “one-sided and incomplete” picture. They should be thrown out and the individual who charged her, Penn Law dean Ted Ruger, should be disqualified because of his bias against her, the document states.

“The request for sanctions [against Wax] based on supposed ‘derogatory’ statements is entirely fabricated and made up for the purpose of penalizing Prof. Wax because she expressed views that are politically unpopular on campus, are critical of present university practices, and that elicit opposition from a vocal faction of left-leaning activist and minority students and outsiders who demand absolute deference and conformity,” Shapiro wrote.

» READ MORE: Penn law dean seeks ‘major sanction’ against professor Amy Wax

The Aug. 31 filing was first posted in a story on the website Legal Insurrection and then reported on by the Daily Pennsylvanian, the student newspaper.

Gadsden and Penn Law declined comment.

It’s the latest volley in an ongoing battle between the university and Wax, 69, whose inflammatory comments have drawn ire for years. In June, Ruger in a 12-page letter to the faculty senate laid out charges against Wax, accusing her of “inappropriate conduct” and asking that the senate convene a hearing and ultimately levy a major sanction against Wax, which could include suspension or firing.

Among the allegations included was that Wax once allegedly suggested that it was “rational” to fear Black men in elevators and that Mexican males were more likely than other men to assault women. In 2021, she invited “renowned white supremacist” Jared Taylor to speak to her class and then have lunch with her and students, Ruger also wrote.

» READ MORE: Penn law professor Amy Wax enraged people with her comments about Asians. Now, she may face sanction.

And, when asked by a Black student if she agreed with a panelist that Black people are inferior to white people, she responded: “You can have two plants that grow under the same conditions, and one will just grow higher than the other.” The then-first-year student told a law firm hired by the school to investigate that she felt “powerless” to respond and had to “box in” her feelings in the face of racism.

“Wax has repeatedly used the platform she was granted when she became a professor at the university to disparage immigrants, people of color, and women, including law students, alumni and faculty,” Ruger said in the letter.

Her comments and actions, which were made in classrooms and public forums, have harmed students, faculty, and alumni and undermine the school’s core values, Ruger argued. They have led students not to take her classes, feeling they would be treated unfairly, and have caused anxiety for those who do, the letter said.

Ruger initiated the process against Wax in January after she said in late 2021 that the country would be better off with fewer Asians and less Asian immigration. She also has called into question the academic ability of Black students, saying in an interview that she didn’t think she’d ever seen a Black student graduate in the top quarter of the class at Penn Law and “rarely, rarely in the top half,” which Ruger has disputed. Most recently in April on a national conservative talk show, she slammed immigrants who are critical of the United States.

Shapiro addressed some of those charges directly in his letter.

He said that Daniel Rodriguez — former Northwestern University law school dean whom Penn Law asked to investigate allegations in 2021 after a group of alumni complained about Wax — said of the plant comment that he “cannot conclude that this statement was derogatory under the clear definition of that term,” Shapiro wrote.

Rodriguez, according to Shapiro, also said: “What I can say is the overall contours of Professor Wax’s scholarship on group difference and equality principles does not, on my best reading, support the assertion that she views Black individuals as biologically inferior to Whites” and that “there is no basis to believe that Prof. Wax has in fact been discriminating against Black students in grading their exams.”

Of the Taylor incident, Shapiro wrote that it was proper for Wax to invite Taylor to the seminar on Conservative and Legal Thought, which is supposed to educate students on “conservative and right-of-center positions.” Wax, he said, received permission to invite Taylor and was reimbursed for the lunch.

“In fact, the session was extraordinarily successful and resulted in a lively discussion, with students and Prof. Wax challenging many of Mr. Taylor’s assertions and ideas,” Shapiro wrote.

He contended that Ruger’s charges overall lacked context and left out important information, including that Wax won the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2015.

He also contends that the university must provide information for Wax to properly defend herself. Wax has asserted that her comments about Black student performance were accurate and therefore she can’t be sanctioned for them.

“There is only one party who has the information relevant to that issue, and that is the Law School,” Shapiro wrote.

Shapiro said the university must retain “an outside forensic expert to examine the Law School’s records on students’ grades and academic performance by race.”

“The University,” he argued, “cannot seek to sanction Prof. Wax for her comments on Black student performance at Penn Law while, at the same time, refusing to provide information about Black student performance at Penn Law.”

Shapiro criticized the charges levied by Ruger as “a tangle of half-baked, deracinated accusations, in some cases lifted from sloppy, distorted, mangled, internet comments or stale student recollections.” And, he argued that sanctioning her for materials she presented in her class “presents the possibility for serious inequity” and questioned whether other Penn professors’ courses were subject to similar scrutiny.

The lawyer also said Wax regularly hears from students and junior faculty at Penn who complain about the “dogmatic campus climate and the often one-sided education they are receiving, their disagreement with the prevalent ideas on campus, their desire to hear and debate unpopular views, and their dismay at the vendetta against her.” That’s why she won’t take a leave of absence, the lawyer said.

At the same time, Shapiro said that she will be unable to participate in the proceedings or meet deadlines until the end of the semester, possibly longer, because she is undergoing treatment for a “life-threatening cancer.” Denying her that accommodation would be a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the lawyer wrote.

Wax has raised over $182,000 to help pay for her legal defense on a GoFundMe page, titled “Amy Wax Legal Defense Fund.”