University of Washington computer science professor Stuart Reges has won a settlement after the school punished him over a satirical statement mocking its embrace of land acknowledgements and other forms of woke ideology.
In 2022, Reges refused to comply with a department recommendation to include a statement acknowledging Coast Salish Indigenous lands in his course materials. Instead, he made a statement by adding a parody statement to his syllabus referencing philosopher John Locke’s labor theory of property to claim Indigenous groups did not hold all the land the university occupies today.
University administrators censored Reges’ syllabus and launched an investigation into the matter that lasted almost a year. It also created a different section of his course to allow students to opt out of taking his class. The leadership even froze his merit pay increase over the issue.
After a lengthy legal battle, the school agreed to pay $600,000 to settle the lawsuit he filed. The settlement prohibits the university from taking further action against the professor or his satirical statement.
The court found that the defendants violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments, according to the settlement document.
A central condition of the agreement guarantees that the professor can continue using his syllabus language without facing administrative discipline.
The settlement also requires the school to pay damages, attorney fees, and litigation expenses that accumulated over years of federal court proceedings.
Professor Stuart Reges got a $600K payout after @UW retaliated against him for making fun of land acknowledgments. But he's worried the university hasn't learned anything. pic.twitter.com/25viFZns5k
— Brandi Kruse (@BrandiKruse) September 9, 2026
The agreement also means Reges will drop all active and potential legal claims against the university. It allows both parties to end the legal proceedings without admitting fault.
This is the latest in a series of cases in which professors have successfully sued universities for violating their First Amendment rights.
Philosophy professor Nicholas Meriwether won a $400,000 settlement from Shawnee State University in 2022 after administration threatened his job for refusing to use transgender pronouns.
VICTORY! After a FIRE lawsuit, the University of Washington paid $600,000 after punishing Professor Stuart Reges for parodying a university-approved “land acknowledgment” in his syllabus. 🧵 https://t.co/unrBuf5yNU pic.twitter.com/0q63E9Nfx5
— FIRE (@TheFIREorg) September 3, 2026
The University of North Texas recently paid $725,000 to settle a First Amendment and defamation lawsuit filed by professor Timothy Jackson. The school had penalized him for defending controversial music theory views and publishing certain articles.
It’s good to finally see these institutions being held accountable for their brazen efforts to force staff and students to adhere to far-left ideology. Perhaps other schools will take note and actually follow the Constitution.
