Bruce Fleming, the English professor at Annapolis who in May argued that service academies like Annapolis shouldn’t exist, has decided to end his official complaint against his employer. He had previously charged that the U.S. Naval Academy was denying him a raise after he, you know, wrote publicly that his school shouldn’t exist.
According to an article by Daniel de Vise in the Washington Post:
A U.S. Naval Academy professor has settled a First Amendment claim against the service academy, following allegations he was denied a merit pay increase after he published newspaper articles criticizing school policies.
Both parties voiced “mutual satisfaction” with the settlement terms, which were not disclosed by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel in announcing the settlement Wednesday. The federal agency’s investigation “uncovered evidence indicating that USNA illegally denied the employee a merit pay increase because of his public statements,” according to the release.
Fleming had more specific charges, like the one about how he thought admissions practices at his school gave unreasonable priority to minority applicants.
Annapolis apparently had no comment about the settled lawsuit. Neither did Fleming.
The core values of the United States Navy are officially Honor, Courage, and Commitment. Settling without either party admitting error sounds a lot like disgrace, cowardice, apathy, but I guess practical decisions were in order.
