Law professor challenges university after campus ‘shooting’ hypothetical changed in lesson plan
The University of Hawai’i violated academic freedom and set a dangerous precedent with unilateral revisions to a law professor’s presentation on a legal concept.
by Graham Piro, FIRE, January 23, 2025
University of Hawai'i law professor Kenneth Lawson has indicated that he will file a grievance against the university for unilaterally changing a lesson plan without his approval.
Those concerned that law schools are shying away from teaching some areas of law to avoid controversy just got more reasons to worry, this time courtesy of the University of Hawai’i at Manoa and its absurd treatment of law professor Kenneth Lawson.
Lawson, an accomplished faculty member at UH, used a simple hypothetical to teach the idea of “transferred intent,” a legal concept invoked when a defendant intends to harm one person, but ends up harming a second person instead. As is common in law school, Lawson offered a hypothetical to convey this idea: Imagine if a dean at his institution tried to shoot another dean, missed, and hit Lawson instead.
Here’s a screenshot from part of his lesson:
Those who have been to law school will understand that using campus figures to illustrate hypotheticals is not at all unusual, and is intended to add a bit of levity and grounding to what can be pretty esoteric topics.
But when an anonymous student filed a complaint, calling the hypothetical “extremely disturbing” and citing the context of some shootings near the university’s campus, administrators summoned Lawson to a meeting near the end of last semester. Though they acknowledged he had not violated any university policy, they nevertheless mandated that he remove the thought experiment from a posted video of the class — or they would change it for him.
The ability of administrators to forcibly alter course materials is positively ripe for abuse.
Lawson hadn’t thought twice about including the example, and had been using the example for years, not simply because it wasn’t unusual but because the protections of academic freedom give faculty wide latitude in determining how to approach controversial or potentially difficult material. When Lawson refused to alter the video of his presentation, given that he had not violated any policy, and using the hypothetical was well within his academic freedom rights, administrators just went on the school’s online curriculum system, where faculty submit presentations, to make the changes themselves.
Remember: these changes were being made because, supposedly, some found a hypothetical of campus figures being shot to be disturbing. So this is what the administration came up with.
You will note that there is still a campus figure on that slide, and it’s the person who was (hypothetically) shot: Professor Lawson. Only the deans have been removed. It seems that at UH, some hypothetical victims are more equal than others.
There’s no denying that this is silly, and many will be tempted to chalk it up as just more campus craziness. But there’s a disturbing wrinkle here, which is that the ability of administrators to forcibly alter course materials is positively ripe for abuse. The university’s administrators have granted themselves unilateral authority to interfere with faculty teaching decisions, despite the fact that UH is a public institution bound by the First Amendment, which views academic freedom, which protects that right, as a “special concern.” If administrators can “memory hole” bits and pieces of curricula they don’t like, even when it violates no rule, where does it stop?
UH still has an opportunity to do the right thing. It’s easy, too — all it has to do is step back and let faculty teach, and save the video editing for film class.
FIRE wrote the university on Dec. 13, urging it to reverse course and restore Lawson’s original hypothetical. The university responded in early January, declining to substantively engage with our concerns or detail specific issues with our argument. Lawson, and all UH students, deserve better. As our second letter states:
FIRE’s concerns are only amplified by the fact that this alleged capitulation to sensitivity is occurring in a law school. To receive a proper education in the law, students will inevitably encounter difficult topics like sexual assault, homicide, physical assault, domestic violence, and may be faced in school and in their careers with descriptions of personal injuries far more graphic than those in Lawson’s hypothetical. Where do UH administrators draw the line regarding their interference in faculty instruction if they feel free to operate under a nebulous standard of protecting students from “disturbing and harmful” material?
Lawson has submitted a grievance about the situation, so UH still has an opportunity to do the right thing. It’s easy, too — all it has to do is step back and let faculty teach, and save the video editing for film class.
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KITV: Morning Beat: Stewart Yerton talks University of Hawaii's Ken Lawson ‘powerpoint censorship’ controversy
CB: Free Speech Group Blasts UH For Censoring Law School Presentation - Honolulu Civil Beat
Background:
Pimp Background:
- Watson 2009: Waikiki robbery suspect captured in Georgia
- Watson 2011: Hawaii Pimp Gets 10 Years For Child Sex-Trafficking
- 2010: McCoy charged with Murder of Drug Dealer
- 2015: Delaware Prosecutor said bad, bad things about accused murderer
- May, 2018: McCoy sounded well-spoken and sincere at the April 2017 Hawaii speaking engagement, said Kenneth Lawson
- May, 2018: “All of these females were prostitutes before I met them,” McCoy said.
- June, 2018: Feds: Alleged Pimp Bribes, Threatens Witnesses from FDC
- Aug, 2018: Hawaii Man Pleads Guilty To Witness Tampering
- Nov 13, 2018: Soft on Crime: Judge drops all charges against former death row inmate prosecutors said wanted to build prostitution empire
- Nov 14, 2018: How Moron Prosecutors Blew Pimp Case (Clue: Sexting the hos and lying about it is a bad, bad idea.)
- Nov 17, 2018: UH: Ken Lawson Admits his “Innocence Project” Brought Alleged Pimp to Hawaii
- Nov 22, 2018: UH: Convicted Felon Paid to Get Other Convicts Released
- 2019: Watson Released from Federal Detention Center Honolulu--May 24, 2019