Law Professors
Law prof who called for military action and end to Israel sues over teaching suspension
The University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law in July 2022. (Photo by LawAnalyzer40526, CC-BY-SA-4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
A University of Kentucky law professor who has called for military action against Israel has filed a lawsuit claiming the school violated his constitutional and civil rights when it suspended him from teaching and launched an investigation to determine whether he created a hostile environment.
Tenured law professor Ramsi Woodcock alleges the university violated his constitutional rights to freedom of expression and procedural due process and discriminated against him in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
Reuters, Inside Higher Ed, the Guardian and Fox News are among the publications with coverage.
According to the Nov. 13 lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, Woodcock has spoken out “against Israeli colonialism, apartheid and genocide at academic conferences and on law faculty email listservs,” including through a petition for military action that he posted online. “In his view,” the lawsuit says, Israel “must be brought to an end.”
The lawsuit claims a definition of antisemitism adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance violates the First Amendment when applied by the university in disciplinary proceedings or when used in federal enforcement of an anti-discrimination law.
“To the extent that the IHRA definition prohibits calling for the dismantling of colonial state structures, prohibits legal scholars from debating the contours of the right of self-determination, prohibits allegations of race discrimination, and prohibits allegations of genocide, the IHRA definition is unconstitutional,” the suit says.
A joint resolution passed by Kentucky lawmakers requires public universities to use the definition even though it “characterizes broad categories of constitutionally protected speech critical of Israel as antisemitic,” the lawsuit states.
Woodcock has been sharing his views outside the classroom since 2024 without consequence. That changed in the summer of 2025, the lawsuit says, following passage of the joint resolution and federal threats to withdraw funding from universities.
Lawsuit defendants include University of Kentucky president Eli Capilouto, law dean James Duff and U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon.
The lawsuit identifies Woodcock as “a founder of the inframarginalist movement in law and economics, which applies the methods of law and economics to the problem of wealth inequality.” He teaches courses mostly in the areas of business and commercial law.
He is represented by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Kapitan Gomaa Law and Hawks Quindel, according to a CAIR press release.
University of Kentucky spokesperson Jay Blanton gave statements to several publications saying Woodcock had been “reassigned” but not suspended during the investigation.
“If someone’s views as stated threaten the safety and well-being of the university’s students and staff, we are obligated to act to protect our community and our people,” Blanton told the Guardian. “That’s clear under Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964. We have an obligation to find out if that’s the case.”
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