Hildebrand v. Board of Trustees of Michigan State University

KEITH, Circuit Judge.

In recent years, the genteel academic world has been rocked with controversies which have required adjudication by federal judges. This case presents an increasingly common dispute — a non-tenured professor whose employment is terminated, claims that his first amendment and due process rights were abridged. The issues presented in this appeal, however, do not directly implicate the merits of how and why the plaintiff was fired. Instead, plaintiff complains of certain evidentiary rulings and of the district court’s denial of his right to trial by jury. We find merit in his…