Less than a week after the University of Arkansas announced that Emily Suski would serve as the new dean of its law school, the university withdrew its job offer because right-wing legislators complained that Suski once signed an amicus court brief supporting transgender athletes.

On Wednesday, the law school said in a statement that it had “decided to go a different direction in filling the vacancy” rather than follow through with Suski’s hiring. The statement didn’t explain the university’s reasoning, but in a January 14 Facebook post, Democratic state Rep. Nicole Clowney explained that Suski was one of 17 academics who signed an amicus court brief in a lawsuit challenging an anti-trans sports ban.

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“The signature alerted Arkansas elected officials that Prof. Suski may share different political views than they do on this one issue,” Clowney wrote. “That… was enough for multiple state elected officials to threaten to substantially reduce funding in the upcoming fiscal session.”

Clowney wrote that legislators have “sadly” made “veiled threats and comments behind closed doors about the political leanings of University of Arkansas faculty and staff… But state elected officials threatening to withhold funding to the entire School based on the political beliefs of the newly hired Dean is a new, terrifying low.”

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State Senate President Pro Tempore Bart Hester (R) told KATV that he personally contacted university leaders to make “very clear … how much I disapproved of [Suski’s] hire.”

“We agree in diversity of thought and education—totally agree with that,” Hester told the news station. “But this was a potential dean that disagreed with the very foundations of society. She didn’t understand what a woman was. Didn’t understand how important it was to protect women in sports.”

Through a spokesperson, state Attorney General Tim Griffin expressed dismay at Suski’s selection and applauded the university’s withdrawn job offer, arguing that “many more qualified candidates could have been identified.” Similarly, a spokesperson for Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) said that she praised the university’s decision as being “in the best interests of students.”

In a statement, Holly Dickson, executive director of the Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), wrote, “after a two-year national search [the university withdrew its offer to Suski] — not because she was unqualified, but because she exercised her First Amendment rights in a court of law. That is not just wrong. It is unconstitutional.”

“If state officials can threaten to cut funding because they dislike a professor’s legal analysis, then no public employee in Arkansas is safe to speak freely. Under this logic, any public worker could be punished for expressing a belief unless it has first been approved by politicians. That is not governance — it is ideological control,” Dickson added.

“This action is retaliatory, full stop. And it is impossible to believe this outcome would have occurred had Professor Suski signed a brief on the other side of the issue,” Dickson continued.

“The implications are staggering,” she wrote. “This sends a chilling message to every faculty member: stay silent or risk your career. It tells future educators to look elsewhere. It damages the credibility of the University of Arkansas School of Law and its ability to function as a serious institution committed to independent thought and rigorous legal education.”

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