## Facts

- Grant Cooper, a non-tenured assistant professor of history at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR), was employed from 1970 to 1974 under successive one-year appointments.
- Cooper was a member of the Progressive Labor Party, publicly identified as a communist, and taught from a Marxist viewpoint while encouraging student debate and challenge.
- After Cooper’s political affiliation became publicly known, political controversy followed, including efforts by state legislators to invoke state restrictions on communist public employment.
- UALR administrators questioned whether Cooper could teach “objectively”; Cooper maintained he fostered open discussion but would not conceal his viewpoint.
- In 1974 UALR notified Cooper it would not reappoint him for the following academic year; when asked for reasons, the university cited performance-related grounds (e.g., grading concerns, missed classes, curricular coverage, and criticism of another instructor’s textbook).
- An internal ad hoc committee concluded the formal process was followed but expressed concern about the evidentiary basis for the stated reasons.
- Cooper sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments; the case was tried to the court.

## Issues

1. Whether a public university violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments by refusing to reappoint a non-tenured professor because of his political-party membership, political beliefs, and classroom expression.
2. Whether the professor’s protected speech and association were a substantial or motivating factor in the non-reappointment and, if so, whether the university proved it would have made the same decision absent the protected conduct.

## Decision

- The court entered judgment for Cooper.
- Cooper’s political association, self-identification as a communist, and Marxist classroom expression were constitutionally protected.
- Those protected activities were substantial or motivating factors in the non-reappointment decision.
- The university failed to prove it would have non-reappointed Cooper for legitimate reasons even without the protected conduct.
- The court ordered reinstatement as an assistant professor (without tenure) and awarded back pay from 1975 forward, excluding the period when a state-court injunction barred his employment.

## Legal Principles

- Public employers may not take adverse employment action based on an employee’s protected political beliefs, associations, or expression, including in the university setting.
- Under the Mt. Healthy burden-shifting framework, a plaintiff must show protected conduct was a substantial or motivating factor in the adverse action; the employer then bears the burden to prove it would have taken the same action absent the protected conduct.
- In evaluating claimed legitimate reasons, courts may reject vague, inconsistent, or weakly supported performance justifications when the record shows the adverse action followed political controversy and pressure.
- Classroom ideological expression and political association receive strong First Amendment protection in public higher education absent proof tying the association to unlawful conduct.

## Conclusion

The court held that UALR’s non-reappointment decision was driven by protected political association and ideological expression rather than substantiated performance deficiencies, and it granted reinstatement and back pay under § 1983.


Cooper v. Ross, 472 F. Supp. 802 (E.D. Ark. 1979)