A UCLA professor who sued the university after he was suspended in the wake of the George Floyd-Black Lives Matter riots plans to appeal a recent judgment that denied his request for monetary damages.

UCLA accounting lecturer Gordon Klein in December lost his court battle against UCLA on all three causes of action: breach of contract, false light, and negligent interference with prospective earnings. 

Superior Court Judge H. Jay Ford, in his 30-page decision, ruled that UCLA had the contractual right to publicly place Klein on administrative leave while it investigated the massive controversy surrounding Klein’s email to a student rejecting his request to grade black students leniently.

“Professor Klein intends to appeal this travesty of a judgment,” Steven Goldberg, Klein’s attorney, said in an email to The College Fix. 

“The court’s decision was a shocking miscarriage of justice delivered by a judge who, I believe, knows better,” Goldberg said. “Professor Klein proved his case at trial with overwhelming evidence. It wasn’t even close.”

In rejecting the request to grade black students leniently, Klein’s 2020 email had stated in part: “Remember that MLK famously said that people should not be evaluated based on the ‘color of their skin.’ Do you think that your request would run afoul of MLK’s admonition?”

The reply went viral, prompted outrage, and Klein was suspended for a few weeks while the university investigated, but ultimately cleared him. He continues to teach at UCLA.

But the suspension prompted his lawsuit contending the university and a former UCLA business school dean destroyed his lucrative expert witness practice when it publicly suspended him. 

The complaint also contended Klein was suspended for the content of his email, not for campus safety reasons, citing internal communications among UCLA administrators that showed campus officials were offended by Klein’s apparent lack of sympathy for the then-burgeoning Black Lives Matter protests.

“But the judge, for reasons that we will never know, chose to distort the evidence and the law to try to justify a predetermined result,” Goldberg told The Fix. “We believe the judge whitewashed the defendants’ malicious violation of Professor Klein’ legal rights. Professor Klein intends to appeal. This case is not over.”

UCLA’s media relations division has not responded to The College Fix’s requests for comment.

“UCLA had the right to determine what public response was necessary to address and mitigate the immediate [and] extraordinary public outrage toward both Klein and UCLA arising from the public disclosure of Klein’s email,” Judge Ford had written in his decision.

A campus spokesman told the Daily Bruin student newspaper that UCLA “and its leaders support freedom of expression while ensuring a respectful learning environment where all Bruins can thrive. When allegations arise that academic personnel or others have failed to uphold these values, we have rigorous processes in place to ensure fairness for all involved.”

Complicating matters, Judge Ford signed off on his tentative ruling a few days after an administrative transfer to another division, meaning a new judge was assigned to handle and finalize the Klein case.

“I cannot explain why we received an email with the Statement of Decision during the afternoon of January 7, supposedly signed by Judge Ford on January 5, which was after the case was reassigned to Judge Phillips,” Goldberg told The Fix.

A status conference is scheduled with the new judge on Jan. 22.

Glenn Ricketts, a spokesman for the National Association of Scholars, told the California Globe the ruling is another win for mob rule and voiced disappointment in the judge.

“I’d say mob rule has been the norm for quite a while now, extending back to the student riots of the late 1960’s. The difference now is that today, administrators ‘don’t really need any’ pushing to align themselves with present-day student activists,” Ricketts told the Globe.

“As for the judge, I’d say he either doesn’t know much about the current ideologically charged state of the academy or – more likely – he’s in sympathy. I can’t see where his decision will be upheld if the case is appealed.”

MORE: Judge rules against UCLA prof suspended after refusing lenient grading for black students