New Memo Filed with Court in Doctor’s Lawsuit Against Mayo Clinic
Memo Urges Court to Deny Mayo’s Partial Motion to Dismiss
PRINCETON, NJ – The Academic Freedom Alliance today announced a new memorandum filed with the District Court in the state of Minnesota in Dr. Michael Joyner’s lawsuit against the Mayo Clinic. The memorandum of law filed by Dr. Joyner’s legal team came in response to the defense’s partial motion to dismiss claims that the Mayo Clinic violated its contractual obligations to Dr. Joyner. The hearing on the partial motion to dismiss will take place on April 8th.
Filed in November 2023 with financial support from the AFA, Dr. Joyner’s lawsuit against the Mayo Clinic College, its president and CEO, and its board chair is part of a dispute related to comments he made to press about sex-specific differences in sports performance and about the use of convalescent plasma in the treatment of COVID-19.
As this week’s memorandum explains, “Mayo’s Academic Freedom policy expressly protects faculty speech related to research and scholarship, and promises that Mayo will not retaliate if a faculty member’s scholarly opinions or conclusions conflict with those of the institution. Mayo broke this promise to Dr. Joyner. After Dr. Joyner expressed scholarly opinions and conclusions that conflicted with institutional views, Mayo punished him with a suspension, lost pay, and an ongoing gag order. Mayo also violated its policy by attempting to prevent Dr. Joyner from speaking about his research at academic conferences, even though giving such presentations is a required part of his academic appointment as a Clinician Investigator.”
The memorandum continues, “Among other breaches of the Academic Freedom Policy, Mayo also imposed a gag order on any discussion of testosterone and human performance—which is a primary focus of Dr. Joyner’s research and expertise. … Yet in its attempt to read the academic freedom policy out of existence, Mayo’s motion to dismiss simply ignores the fact that speaking at academic conferences and freely publishing and discussing his research are specific requirements of Dr. Joyner’s academic appointment. … For all of these reasons, Defendants’ Partial Motion to Dismiss should be denied.”
- The full memorandum of law filed this week
- Joyner’s original lawsuit against the Mayo Clinic filed in November, and the AFA’s statement
- The AFA’s June letter to the Mayo Clinic in support of Joyner at the outset of the controversy