A few years ago, I was going to write about how a professor used woke rhetoric to challenge the woke ideas spread by a university. I am glad I waited because Professor Stuart Reges has been vindicated.

The University of Washington encouraged faculty to acknowledge that they were occupying Indian lands in their course syllabus. The professor decided to employ some parody and wrote: “I acknowledge that by the labor theory of property the Coast Salish people can claim historical ownership of almost none of the land currently occupied by the University of Washington.”

The next day he was ordered to take the statement off the syllabus because (in the words of the department head) they were “inappropriate” and “offensive” and “toxic.” When he refused, the school created a video alternative to his class and began an investigation.

The professor filed suit and lost in the US district court but eventually won when the case was appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The judicial panel ruled that the potential discomfort a student might feel did not justify censoring protected speech.

Upon the victory, the professor thanked the legal team with FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression). He also hoped that this ruling would help reverse “a decade-long trend towards ideological conformity in academia.”

The University of Washington maintains they “acted appropriately” and did nothing wrong. Nevertheless, the university had to pay $600,000 in attorney fees and other costs.

I applaud the professor for challenging a land acknowledgment statement with John Locke’s labor theory of property. This is another example of a woke idea being challenged by history and common sense.