Giebel

In this case, we must decide whether a professor at a state university who removes handbills publicizing an appearance of a former colleague at a conference to be held on the university campus is entitled to qualified immunity. Ironically, the subject of the conference was “Intellectual Freedom.” We have no doubt that the removal of the handbills constituted a First Amendment violation, and that at the time of the alleged conduct there was no uncertainty in the law as to this question.

I. BACKGROUND

Douglas Giebel was a professor at Montana State University-Northern until 1995, when, after an acrimonious process similar to that which frequently occurs in institutions of higher education at the time of the initial hiring of a faculty member or an award of tenure, his contract was not renewed. Stephen Sylvester was the chairman of Giebel’s department, and one of his adversaries in the contract renewal dispute.

In the Spring of 1996, about a year after the termination of Giebel’s employment, the university sponsored a conference on “Intellectual Freedom” and arranged for the participation of about twenty-five speakers. Giebel was scheduled to be one. When the conference was…