From Judge Amos Mazzant's decision Monday in Phillips v. Collin Community College Dist. (E.D. Tex.) (see also Keith Whittington's post on the underlying controversy, and my post from when the lawsuit was filed):
This case arises from a series of statements—a newspaper publication, an interview, class discussions, and social media posts—made by Phillips during the time he was a professor at Collin College. According to Phillips, Defendants "violat[ed] his constitutional rights by retaliating against him for speaking as a private citizen about public issues" in each of the enumerated instances. Specifically, Phillips complains that Defendants placed a prior restraint on his speech through a number of policies and directives, all of which Phillips claims were "attempt[s] to silence College faculty" from speaking "as private citizens on matters of public concern."
Phillips asserts that the conflict between Phillips and Defendants began in 2017 when Phillips co-authored an open letter published in the Dallas Morning News advocating for the removal of Confederate memorials. In the letter, Phillips identified himself as a professor at Collin College and listed his faculty email as a point of contact. According to Phillips, he co-authored the letter as a private citizen. Nonetheless, after the letter was published, two Collin College administrators met with Phillips and reminded him of Collin College's policy that requires faculty to "'exercise appropriate restraint, exhibit tolerance for differing opinions, and indicate clearly that they are not an official spokesperson for the College' when they speak or act as private citizens."
Later, in 2019, Phillips granted the Washington Post an interview wherein he discussed race relations and the then-recent shooting at an El Paso, Texas grocery store. The shooter was a former Collin College student but was not a former student of Phillips's. Prior to Phillips's interview, Collin College's President, H. Neil Matkin, sent out a directive via email to the Collin College campus:
