Oberlin Loses Appeal

Remember that libel case against Oberlin College by a local bakery from a few years ago? Some Oberlin students shoplifted a bottle of wine, the store owners called the cops, the students were arrested. Then there were demonstrations against the store charging racism and discrimination which college officials facilitated and helped to organize. The store owners ended up suing the college for libel, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and tortious interference. The store owners won and a jury awarded the store owners $50 million. Oberlin appealed.

In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal Thomas M. Boyd reports that Oberlin has lost its appeal:

Judging from the evidence unearthed at the trial and reiterated by the appellate court, it seems too many academics view their “mission” of encouraging students to express their political opinions to include actively participating in what can sometimes be, as in this case, the publication of false and defamatory material. This participation went so far that, in her testimony, Ms. Raimondo admitted instructing a subordinate to tell the supplier of food to Oberlin’s dining halls to stop supplying food to students from the bakery in what the appeals court called “a claimed effort to appease the angry students.”

The appellate judges held that while the trial court had properly found that “the student chants and verbal protests about the Gibsons being racists were protected by the First Amendment,” what separated Oberlin and placed it in a financial vise was the active, irresponsible and defamatory actions of several of its senior administrators. Rather than try to resolve the matter early on or use the resulting guilty pleas as a lesson, Oberlin actively sought to punish Gibson’s Bakery for having a different perspective, for standing by the arrest of the three Oberlin students, and for exercising its right of legal redress.

Fifty million dollars is a stiff price to pay for promoting what a jury and four judges found were false and defamatory accusations against a neighbor. Maybe this result will serve to remind other academic institutions that their vicious politics can have consequences.

Frankly, I doubt it will change Oberlin College administrators’ attitudes at all. The only thing that might sway them would be a disastrous collapse of alumni donations but I think that’s pretty unlikely. Oberlin alumni traditionally skew pretty far to the left. I haven’t been able to uncover any statistics comparing post-libel case donations with those before.