Allan Josephson v. Toni Ganzel, 115 F.4th 771

Allan Josephson, a psychiatrist, was Division Chief at the University of Louisville Medical School, deeply involved in academic work regarding childhood gender dysphoria.
In October 2017, Josephson spoke at a Heritage Foundation panel, voicing views on gender dysphoria treatment that were unpopular with his colleagues and supervisors.
His remarks led to internal complaints, faculty discord, and heightened scrutiny/Supervision from colleagues and superiors, including the tracking of his conduct and alleged work performance issues.
In late 2017, Josephson was demoted from Division Chief to regular faculty and given new work assignments; eventually, the University chose not to renew his contract in February 2019.
Josephson sued six officials, alleging First Amendment retaliation under § 1983; defendants claimed Eleventh Amendment and qualified immunity.
The district court denied summary judgment for defendants on immunity grounds; they appealed, seeking review only on these threshold legal questions.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Eleventh Amendment Sovereign Immunity	Josephson’s claims fall under Ex parte Young’s prospective relief exception	Claims barred by state sovereign immunity	Not barred; Ex parte Young exception applies
Qualified Immunity	Rights clearly established: retaliation for protected speech forbidden	No clear precedent showing each defendant’s isolated act was adverse or speech protected	Defendants not entitled; law clearly established
Protected Speech	Spoke in personal capacity on matter of public concern	Speech was pursuant to official duties, thus unprotected	Speech protected: related to scholarship/teaching
Retaliation causation/adverse action	Termination & hostile environment were motivated by protected speech	Actions were based on performance issues, not speech	Disputes of fact remain; sufficient evidence for jury

Pickering v. Board of Educ., 391 U.S. 563 (First Amendment protects public employee speech on matters of public concern, subject to balancing)
Garcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410 (Public employee speech made pursuant to official duties is not protected)
Connick v. Myers, 461 U.S. 138 (Public concern analysis in public employee speech cases)
Ex parte Young, 209 U.S. 123 (Sovereign immunity exception for prospective relief against state officials for ongoing federal violations)
Meriwether v. Hartop, 992 F.3d 492 (Professors retain First Amendment protection for core academic functions)
Fritz v. Charter Twp. of Comstock, 592 F.3d 718 (Adverse actions include credible threats to economic livelihood in retaliation context)