Ouster of Black Studies Head Is Upheld in N.Y.

The City College of New York legally demoted Leonard Jeffries after he was accused of bigotry and anti-Semitism, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The court reversed its decision of a year ago after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered it to reconsider the college’s effort to oust Jeffries as its Black Studies Department chairman.

The Supreme Court said then that a ruling it made last May in the case of a fired public employee could alter Jeffries’ case. In that case, the Supreme Court ruled that public employees may be fired for insubordinate statements even if some of the statements are protected under the First Amendment.

The appeals court set aside a jury and judge’s findings that City College violated Jeffries’ free-speech rights when it removed him as chairman after a 1991 speech.