U of San Diego Provost finds that statements by Professor Smith are protected by academic freedom

The Provost has issued a statement regarding the case we noted previously, that reads in part:

We recently received complaints relating to a post by USD Law Professor Tom Smith on his personal blog concerning the causes of COVID-19. The complaints alleged violations of various university and School of Law policies.

As a threshold matter, we sought to determine whether the blog post at issue was protected by our policy on academic freedom. After a thorough legal review, it was determined that the expression was protected by that policy.

This conclusion in no way amounts to an endorsement by the university of the opinions shared in the blog post.

Happily, the Provost reached the correct conclusion; it should not have taken so long.  This is about as easy an academic freedom case as one can imagine.