The U.S. Supreme Court denied Monday a request for review filed by three professors who challenged the University of Arkansas System's tenure policy.
The faculty members from separate UA System schools claimed that a revised tenure policy violated due-process rights, retroactively changing the contractual relationship between faculty member and employer.
U.S. District Judge James M. Moody Jr. dismissed their case in March of last year, and the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in November found "no basis for reversal" of Moody's order.
Nate Hinkel, a UA System spokesman, declined to comment Monday when asked about the top court's decision to deny certification to the petition.
The petition to the U.S. Supreme Court listed three professors as filing the legal challenge on behalf of themselves and "others similarly situated," court documents state.
They are: Philip Palade, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences; J. Thomas Sullivan, a professor of law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Bowen School of Law; and Gregory Borse, an associate professor of English and philosophy at the University of Arkansas at Monticello.
Joseph Price, a Little Rock-based attorney representing the professors, provided a statement Monday on their behalf to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, expressing they were "disappointed" but that the case rulings have "only concerned technical procedural matters."
"No court has reached the merits of our claim that the Board of Trustees' revision to the for-cause standard to terminate tenured faculty members violates the legal rights of tenured and tenured-track faculty in the University of Arkansas system. While we still believe that there has been an injury suffered because of the revision, otherwise we would not have filed suit and appealed, we accept that the federal courts have disagreed with our assessment to date," they said in the statement.
In addition to their lawsuit filed in federal district court, the professors had filed a similar lawsuit in Pulaski County Circuit Court.
On Friday, the professors filed a notice of appeal following the dismissal of their circuit court lawsuit last month. In an order filed Sept. 2, Judge Mackie Pierce found that the professors "claims are speculative and they have failed to demonstrate actual or imminent injury or harm."
Sullivan is retiring effective Nov. 5, according to a statement provided last month by a UALR spokesman that cited covid-19 as a factor in his decision.
"I am 70 and was contemplating retirement at the end of the 2021-22 academic year. The disclosure that even full vaccination does not ensure protection against infection with Delta variant expedited my decision. The effective date of my resignation is November 5, 2021," Sullivan said in a statement to the Democrat-Gazette provided last month by UALR.