One has to wonder how much of this was about politics and not scholarship.

Paul Caron of the TaxProfBlog reports.

Duquesne Prof Sues Dean, Law School For Discrimination After Tenure Denial

National Law Journal, Law Professor Files Bias Suit Against Duquesne, Dean:

A Duquesne University School of Law professor, whose subjects include Islamic law, has sued the law school and its dean for age, gender and religious scholarship discrimination.

In a 98-page complaint detailing allegations of law school Dean Ken Gormley’s deliberate actions to keep professor Susan Hascall from administrative positions and tenure, Hascall alleges the discrimination began around the time she started pointing out the law school’s criteria for tenure differed from that of the overall university.

Hascall, an assistant professor of law, alleges in her complaint, Hascall v. Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit, that Gormley and others believed she had voted “no” to the faculty approving a “no confidence” vote of the university’s president in the wake of his 2008 ouster of former law school Dean Don Guter. …

Hascall alleged Gormley began denigrating her scholarship and committee work around the time she began disagreeing with him about inconsistencies in the law faculty handbook. Hascall alleged Gormley told other professors that Hascall was a “troublemaker,” according to the complaint.

One of the main discrepancies Hascall said she took issue with was that the law school handbook did not allow for Hascall to select two of the outside professors to review her academic scholarship as part of the review and tenure process, according to the complaint.

Hascall alleged in the complaint that Gormley and others only included two of the three scholarly works she submitted to the reviewing professors, leaving out one on Shari’ah law.