From Rice v. Schell, decided two weeks ago by Judge Matthew McFarland (S.D. Ohio), but just posted on Westlaw a few days ago:
Plaintiff Darryl Rice serves as a tenured and endowed associate professor of management for the Farmer School of Business at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. For over a decade, Plaintiff has taught courses such as Diversity and Cross-Cultural Management, participated in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion ("DEI") programming, and contributed to entities like DEI-based committees at Miami University. In April 2025, Miami University began to wind down certain programs and entities related to DEI. Specifically, the following entities were eventually discontinued: (1) the Office of Transformational and Inclusive Excellence, (2) the Farmer School of Business DEI Service Committee, (3) the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion, (4) Miami Regional's Center for DEI, (5) the Department of Management DEI Service Committee, (6) Miami University's Across-the-Divide Conference, (7) the Office of Transformational and Inclusive Excellence Newsletter, (8) the Inclusive Excellence Faculty Fellows Program, (9) the DEI Mastermind Program, (10) the Diversity and Inclusion Networking Event, (11) DEI Professional Development Day, as well as other activities that Plaintiff had used to fulfill his service obligations. For purposes of Miami University's Tenure Track Guidelines, "service" obligations include "activities which contribute to the University's and/or the campus's mission," serving on committees, and providing continuing education programs if they are not already incorporated within the "teaching" category.
Miami University explained to Plaintiff that these closures were mandated by the Advance Ohio Higher Education Act ("S.B. 1"). That being said, Miami University began the process of closures and reorganization before S.B. 1 officially took effect. The Court pauses here to highlight particularly relevant portions of S.B. 1. This legislation commands that "the board of trustees of each state institution of higher education shall adopt and the institution shall enforce a policy" prohibiting, among other things, the following:
(1) Any orientation or training course regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion [unless an exception applies];
(2) The continuation of existing diversity, equity, and inclusion offices or departments; and
(3) Establishing new diversity, equity, and inclusion offices or departments….
Moreover, the statute reads: "Nothing in this section prohibits faculty or students from classroom instruction, discussion, or debate, so long as faculty members allow students to express intellectual diversity." …
Plaintiff sued, claiming that the law violated, among other things, the First Amendment, but the court disagreed:
