gal under Texas law. At some point there will be a lawsuit, either the operator suing the city or the city suing the operator, or Texas will legalize gambling.” City Council member Omar Narvaez didn’t agree with the move. “I think it’s unfair that all of the sudden all of these COs [certificates of occupancy] for all these card rooms have suddenly been revoked,” he said, according to CBS- DFW. “Unfortunately, our city attorney has decided to change the idea of what he be- lieves constitutes card rules according to the law.” A Dallas spokesperson declined to com- ment to the Observer when asked for an ex- planation of city attorney Chris Caso’s change of heart on the poker rooms. Texas Card House is working on an ap- peal to get their certificate of occupancy restored, and if that fails, the city could be looking at a lawsuit. As the owners worked on their appeal this month, city officials were in court fighting another lawsuit, this one from a group of sexually oriented busi- nesses in Dallas that were recently told they had to close between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. The city imposed new hours of opera- tions on the businesses, citing increased vi- olent crime in the early morning hours near the clubs. The businesses sued the same day. Dallas’ practice of playing the crime card when it goes after businesses council mem- bers dislike isn’t restricted to vice. The city did it with Jim’s Car Wash in South Dallas, saying the business was a hotbed for crime caused by people congregating there. The city forced it to shut down in 2019, and the owners are now suing. Dallas city staff members also cited crime as one of the rea- sons it should break up the concentration of dollar stores in parts of the city. Meanwhile, friction is growing between the city and its poker rooms. The cards will keep getting dealt in Dallas and across the state of Texas. Whether the games will be le- gal is anybody’s bet, but the question likely will have to be decided in court. Some players around the world have turned to the internet for their poker games. Williams said it’s not ideal for everyone, and online poker isn’t legal everywhere. If Dallas does ban poker rooms, Williams will likely still be seated around a table somewhere trying to win a pot. It may just be in the underground or in another city. ▼ CENSORSHIP ‘EPICENTER OF CENSORSHIP’ H Eli Mabli Photography Now, with his contract set to expire in mid-May, Phillips is suing his employer. “It’s a four-alarm free speech fire at Collin Col- lege right now,” he said. Phillips is represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a campus free speech nonprofit. FIRE has also aided professors Suzanne Jones and Lora Burnett in their own separate suits against their former employer. This makes Phillips the third professor to sue Collin College over alleged free speech violations in the past year. It comes at a time when conservative leaders are ramping up attacks on academic freedom, both in Texas and nationwide. Phillips is a preeminent scholar on race relations and was recently named educator of the year by the East Texas Historical As- sociation. He’s won a national grant, spon- sored student groups and put together special programs for the school, helping to make him one of the most accomplished faculty members there, by his estimation. “Clearly, the only reason they’re firing me is for exercising free speech,” he said. Along with Collin College, President Neil Matkin and other university officials are named in the lawsuit. According to the suit, Phillips was for- ANOTHER HISTORY PROFESSOR IS SUING COLLIN COLLEGE OVER FREE SPEECH VIOLATIONS. BY SIMONE CARTER istory professor Michael Phillips says he’s been in Collin College’s crosshairs for some time, but they fi- nally pulled the trigger and effectively “fired” him earlier this year. Among other reasons, Phillips and his le- gal team claim he was let go because he talked about history. And he’s one of several others who allege retaliation because they criticized the school’s handling of the coro- navirus pandemic. mally reprimanded after he slammed the school’s COVID-19 response on Facebook. Last September, he suggested that his stu- dents consider wearing face coverings and discussed the dangers of anti-mask advo- cacy groups amid the 1918 pandemic. After that, he claims, he was told during a disci- plinary meeting to never again bring up masks in class. The lawsuit says Phillips was asked by the school’s senior vice president to help “create a narrative” surrounding his depar- ture for a “graceful exit.” In exchange, Phil- lips claims he was offered help in a job search, which he declined. In addition, in 2017 Phillips co-wrote an open letter in The Dallas Morning News that called for local Confederate monuments to be removed. The suit says the school took is- sue with the fact that Phillips had men- tioned his Collin College affiliation, saying the piece “made the college look bad.” Two years after the open letter, Phillips was issued an “employee coaching form” for speaking with the media, the lawsuit contin- ues. This time, the school was unhappy he’d provided context to The Washington Post for a story on the El Paso shooter, a former Col- lin College student who sought to kill Mexi- cans in a Walmart. Former Collin College professor Jones also signed the open letter calling for the dis- mantling of Confederate monuments, which was similarly one of the reasons cited for her termination. Burnett, meanwhile, claims her road to removal started when she criticized then-Vice President Mike Pence in an Octo- ber 2020 tweet. (In January, Burnett ac- cepted the school’s offer to pay her $70,000, plus nearly $40,000 in attorneys’ fees.) “Collin College is the epicenter of censor- ship in the state of Texas,” FIRE attorney Kat- lyn Patton said in a statement. “How many more lawsuits will it take, and how many more payouts will taxpayers have to shoulder, be- fore Collin College leaders realize that the Constitution applies to them too?” The decision to part ways with Phillips comes even though he’d been recommended for a three-year extension by a Collin Col- lege faculty group that evaluates professors who are up for new contracts. But the way Collin College sees it, Phil- lips’ story is all wrong. In a statement, spokesperson Marisela Cadena-Smith pointed to the fact that his term contract was already set to end this May. She also said the college has “every right” to decide who’s on its faculty roster. “While it is regrettable that Dr. Phillips has chosen to mischaracterize facts and file a lawsuit, the college looks forward to defend- ing its actions in court,” Cadena-Smith said. FIRE alleges the school has repeatedly History professor Michael Phillips is suing Collin College. infringed on professors’ First Amendment rights, retaliating against them for weighing in on issues of public concern. Phillips claims the administration in- formed him that an unspecified number of students didn’t like what he had to say about masks. But a number of other topics could also be upsetting for some, including evolu- tion and LGBTQ+ history, he said. This could make for an antagonistic rela- tionship between students and teachers, the latter of whom are essentially being told that the administration doesn’t have their backs, Phillips said. Now, he fears that any time a controversial subject crops up, professors will have to think: “Will this be the class- room discussion that gets me fired?” “They created an atmosphere of fear, and then students get denied the quality educa- tion they deserve,” Phillips said. “It’s the stu- dents most of all who are harmed by this.” For Phillips’ former colleague Burnett, this isn’t just a quirky local story: The coun- try’s premier First Amendment organiza- tion for higher education is engaged in a long strategic push to safeguard North Tex- ans’ rights, she said. Constitutional protec- tions are especially essential during times of great political disagreements. Still, some don’t seem to understand that government institutions, like Collin College, can’t fire employees for their politics, Bur- nett said. By parting ways with Phillips days after offering her payment — and spending more than $100,000 in the process — the school has shown a contempt for both the First Amendment and the taxpayers, she said. Students deserve to attend a school where professors are free to teach, and free to en- gage in political speech outside class like any- one else, Burnett continued. “One way or another, there’s going to be change at that college,” she said. “Either a judge will >> p10 9 dallasobserver.com CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS DALLAS OBSERVER MARCH 17–23, 2022
