From a Foundation for Individual Rights in Education press release, discussing the allegations in this Complaint:
Today, history professor Michael Phillips sued Collin College, its president, H. Neil Matkin, and other university officials for violating his constitutional rights by firing him for talking about history and criticizing the college's COVID-19 policies.
Represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Phillips is the third professor to sue Collin College for muzzling faculty criticism, and the fourth, since January 2021, to be fired for criticizing the college's response to the COVID-19 pandemic….
In August 2017, Collin College and Matkin began their unconstitutional campaign against the professor. Phillips, an expert in race relations in Dallas, authored an open letter in the Dallas Morning News on behalf of a group of historians, calling for the removal of Confederate monuments in Dallas. In the letter, Phillips identified himself as a professor at Collin College. As a result, administrators summoned Phillips to a meeting and told him that the letter violated college policy because it "made the college look bad," and mentioned Phillips's affiliation with the college.
