Judge Larry Naves' decision not to reinstate Ward Churchill to his position at the University of Colorado at Boulder has emboldened CU in a big way. The school's attorney revealed yesterday that Churchill will be billed ten grand or so for costs incurred while fighting his wrongful-termination lawsuit.
Hard to believe that CU really expects to get dime one of this amount -- and even if Churchill is ultimately forced to pay, the sum will probably be dwarfed by the legal costs incurred while trying to pry it out of him. So why bother? Well, Churchill has inflicted loads of lousy publicity on the institution for several years now -- at least from CU's perspective. And the bad PR continues on HBO, which is airing Shouting Fire: Stories From the Edge of Free Speech, a documentary that makes the folks lobbying for Churchill's ouster look downright McCarthyite. This is one way for CU to return the favor.