CA district settles with professor fighting state 'anti-racist' mandate

A California community college district has reached a settlement with a professor challenging state regulations requiring faculty to "employ teaching, learning and professional practices that reflect DEIA and anti-racist principles" after a three-year legal fight.

Bakersfield College history professor Daymon Johnson, represented by the Institute for Free Speech, sued nearly a dozen individuals associated with the school, district and state community college system in part on First Amendment grounds in July 2023. They included then-interim president of Bakersfield College, Steve Watkin, then-interim Kern Community College District Chancellor Thomas Burke and California Community Colleges Chancellor Sonya Christian.

The federal complaint alleged school officials had investigated Johnson for his dissident speech and argued the First Amendment "guarantees Professor Johnson's right to express himself, and it forbids the state from mandating that he subscribe to or promote any official ideology."

It was filed less than three months after Bakersfield College Professor Matthew Garrett was fired over comments made in a diversity committee meeting in what the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression called "a flagrant violation of the First Amendment." That matter was resolved with a $2.4 million settlement in August 2024.

The federal complaint said Johnson succeeded Garrett as the faculty lead for the Renegade Institute for Liberty, which it described as a "dissident group villainized by the school administration." That gave Johnson "special reason to be concerned about his future as a Bakersfield College professor should he continue to express his views," it said.

A district judge dismissed the case in September 2024. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed that decision in 2025, removed Christian from the case and sent it back down to the lower court for further proceedings.

A judge granted a preliminary injunction in February barring the school and district from "investigating, disciplining or terminating Johnson" under the state regulations, though the order did not apply to Johnson's official speech as a member of the college's Equal Opportunity & Diversity Advisory Committee.

The settlement allows the court to enforce that order for a five-year period, at which point the case will be permanently dismissed. The defendants will also pay $150,000 for Johnson's attorney's fees.

"After three years, rather than being mandated to value and promote DEI with its neo-Marxist understanding of race, grievance, identity politics, and cloaked affirmative action, I can finally get back to focusing on what I've always cared about – teaching history and engaging in the free exchange of ideas," Johnson said in the Institute for Free Speech's July 7 news release.

He went on to say he "never should have been put in the position of choosing between my livelihood and my First Amendment rights."

Institute for Free Speech Vice President for Litigation Alan Gura similarly said the state "cannot demand that community college professors conform their speech to an official government ideology."

"Professor Johnson spent years fighting for the First Amendment right that every American professor should take for granted: the right to teach honestly, think freely, and speak his mind without being forced to endorse a government-approved belief system," Gura said.

USA TODAY reached out to Bakersfield College and the Kern Community College District for comment.

BrieAnna Frank is a First Amendment reporter at USA TODAY. Reach her at bjfrank@usatoday.com.

USA TODAY's coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: CA district settles with professor fighting state 'anti-racist' mandate

Reporting by BrieAnna J. Frank, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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This story was originally published July 8, 2026 at 5:47 PM.