An astronomy professor has won a settlement after suing the University of Kentucky for religious discrimination, a case that could have national implications regarding religious intolerance in academia.
The university agreed to pay $125,000 to Martin Gaskell, who was represented in the case by the American Center for Law and Justice.
"In bringing this case and successfully resolving it we believe we have shed some light on a problem that is by no means limited to the University of Kentucky," Frank Manion, senior trial counsel for ACLJ, said Jan. 18.
Gaskell, now a research fellow at the University of Texas at Austin, was one of two finalists in 2007 in the search for a founding director of the University of Kentucky's MacAdam Student Observatory.
In an earlier ruling, U.S. District Judge Karl Forester noted that the chair of the search committee described Gaskell as "superbly qualified," "breathtakingly above the other applicants" and someone "who has already done everything we would want the observatory director to do."
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