Serious Allegation of Discrimination at University of Oregon

Eugene Volock has passed on an allegation of blatant discrimination at a journal published by the University of Oregon. The source is Professor Ofer Raban, who teaches law there.

The events unfolded in 2024, after an Oregon Law Review editor recommended the publication of an article written by the Israeli professor. Conceding the article’s merits, a second law review editor rejected the recommendation because the author was a faculty member at an Israeli university. The law review management agreed, claiming that publishing the article would be perceived as an endorsement of Israel in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—although the article dealt with environmental law and had nothing to do with that conflict.

When the original reviewer objected that this may amount to unlawful discrimination, the matter was taken to a high-ranking law school official. A meeting was held, and the official reportedly gave the green light to the discrimination. At least two law school administrators, possibly more, were aware of the stated basis for the rejection and connived in it. A concerned member of the law review (who did not attend the meeting) was told that the law school’s administration had cleared the discrimination.

I don’t see any reporting on the university’s response. Let’s remember this is an unverified allegation, but it sounds mighty plausible.

Eric Shierman lives in Salem and is the author of We were winning when I was there.