The lawsuit, Curzon-Brown v. San Francisco Community College District, was filed by City College professor Daniel Curzon Brown, who objects to what students had to say about his teaching. The ACLU represents Ryan Lathouwers, the creator of the Teacher Review website. The other defendants in the suit are the San Francisco Community College District, which is the governing body of City College, and the Associated Students of City College.

A City College student himself at the time he created Teacher Review, Lathouwers wanted to provide an online resource for students trying to decide which teachers and courses to select. At the time, there was no systematic way for students to find out just what other students who had taken a class from any particular instructor had to say about the experience. The website, with its student-authored reviews, made its web debut in September 1997.

Since that time, more than 5,000 individual reviews of nearly 600 City College instructors have been posted. The site, which has proved very popular with students, has been visited over 100,000 times.

Curzon Brown, a tenured English professor, was rated on the website as one of the ten worst teachers at City College. Student reviews of Professor Curzon Brown include comments like “pompous,” “the most egotistical extremist there is” and “the worst teacher I have ever had the opportunity of knowing.”

Last October Curzon Brown filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of himself and all other City College employees “who have been or will be defamed by the content of Teacher Review.” His suit seeks monetary damages, and an injunction prohibiting the posting of “defamatory” reviews on the website and prohibiting either City College or the Associated Students from linking to Teacher Review.

“The Teacher Review website is a perfect example of how the Internet functions as a unique and valuable information source,” said ACLU-NC staff attorney Ann Brick. “If permitted to proceed, this case would sound the death knell for any website or bulletin board allowing members of the public to exchange opinions.”

Bernard Burk of Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin, who is representing Lathouwers as a cooperating attorney with the ACLU-NC, said “Imagine a liberal arts professor unable to tolerate his students expressing their own opinions, and unwilling to allow students to draw their own conclusions from what others have to say. Fortunately, the First Amendment prevents people like Professor Curzon Brown from using lawsuits to silence their critics.”

A hearing is scheduled for March 29th in S.F. Superior Court.

In addition to Burk and Brick, the case is being litigated by Celia P. Van Gorder and Sean A. Pager of Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin, and ACLU-NC attorney Margaret Crosby.