A medical school professor at UC Davis named Michael Wilkes is currently engaged in a legal battle for the simple crime of speaking his mind on the efficacy of the PSA test for cancer screening.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is defending him.

FIRE is fighting to defend the academic freedom and free expression rights of University of California, Davis School of Medicine professor Michael Wilkes.

Wilkes has been under threat of punishment for nearly two years after he co-authored a column in the San Francisco Chronicle in which he criticized both the effectiveness of the Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) test for cancer screening and UC Davis’ sponsorship of an event he felt overly promoted the PSA test.

Wilkes was threatened with employment sanctions and told by UC Davis attorneys that he could be liable for “defamation.” FIRE and the UC Davis Academic Senate have called on UC Davis to reject these blatant violations of Wilkes’ academic freedom. Now, Johns Hopkins University professor Steven Salzberg joins in, writing for Forbes. Stay tuned for more updates from FIRE on this troubling case.