Law Center Wages a Fight Against Political Correctness

WASHINGTON— The Center for Individual Rights, a nonprofit conservative law firm, is fast developing an unusual niche: challenging colleges and universities on behalf of those who regard themselves as victims of political correctness.

The center, founded in 1989, has gained prominence by winning high-profile cases like Ronald Rosenberger's against the University of Virginia. In a 5-to-4 decision in June, the Supreme Court held that the university was required to provide student-activity financing for a student-run religious magazine.

The center's newest client is James B. Maas, the Cornell psychology professor and film maker who last year was found to have violated university policies on sexual harassment after four female students complained about him. A faculty committee sanctioned him by giving him guidelines for dealing with students, and he was denied a pay raise.

The center filed suit on Aug. 1 in New York State Supreme Court in Ithaca, asserting that Cornell had violated Professor Maas's rights.

In a recent interview in their bare-bones offices here, the center's founders, Michael S. Greve and Michael P. McDonald, said they accepted the label "conservative" to describe their group, but preferred to be called "libertarian." Mr. Greve, an expert on constitutional and civil rights law who is not a lawyer, talked of the need for "rigorous, uncompromising neutrality with respect to race and freedom of speech." He and Mr. McDonald, who is a lawyer and an expert on First Amendment issues, see their calling in accepting cases the American Civil Liberties Union turns down.

Robert R. Detlefsen, the center's research director, said, "We don't litigate exclusively on behalf of college people, but given our principles and the issues we've decided to focus on, it's not surprising that many of our clients would be white male college professors because these are the folks who find themselves victimized by political correctness."

The A.C.L.U. supports the center's mission to defend individual rights, but cautions about its ideological bent.

"Our belief is not only for freedom of speech and due process," said Nadine Strossen, the civil-liberties group's president, "but also for equality rights for women and minority groups to have equal educational opportunities."

The center has won the 14 higher education cases it has taken on. It accepts about a dozen cases a year out of about 75 requests. With a skeletal staff, the center often recruits private law firms to represent clients on a pro-bono basis.

Both founders are 38 and met while working for the conservative Washington Legal Foundation. Mr. Greve is a German emigre who came to the United States on a Fulbright scholarship and received a Ph.D. in government from Cornell. Mr. McDonald, a Washington native, graduated from Catholic University and George Washington University Law Center.

Its annual budget of $800,000 comes from donations, including three foundations known for their support of conservative causes; the Smith Richardson Foundation has given $570,000 since 1989, and the Carthage and Bradley Foundations $450,000 each in the same period.

The center initially gained some notoriety four years ago by successfully representing a Georgetown Law School student who was threatened with expulsion over a newspaper commentary claiming that black students were academically inferior.

Among the center's most significant court victories was its successful representation of a writing professor at the University of New Hampshire who was found to have violated the university's sexual-harassment guidelines.

In the Maas case, a faculty committee last year found the professor guilty of sexually harassing four former students based largely on activity he acknowledges -- kissing and hugging the students, as well as buying them gifts. He says that his behavior was the result of a caring relationship he developed with particular students and that he often kissed his students in front of their parents and his own family.

Mr. Greve said that Professor Maas "was willing to say that these things were inappropriate and apologize, but they were not sexual harassment."

Professor Maas teaches 2,000 students in the largest undergraduate course in the nation, Psychology 101, and has won numerous awards for both his teaching and films about sleep deprivation. He has also been a significant fund-raiser for Cornell.

His lawsuit rests on two main arguments: that his behavior was not sexual harassment and that, regardless, Cornell's disciplinary process violated his due process rights by failing, among other things, to allow him effective counsel and to cross-examine his accusers.