Pushback: Blacklisting Virginia Tech soccer coach loses effort to get lawsuit dismissed
Kiersten Hening
Bring a gun to a knife fight: Charles Adair, the soccer coach for the woman’s team at Virginia Tech, has lost in his effort to dismiss a lawsuit against him by former player, Kiersten Hening, who he blacklisted from playing because she refused to kneel in support of Black Lives Matter during the National Anthem before a game.
Hening filed a lawsuit against Virginia Tech and Coach Adair in 2021 but Virginia Tech immediately attempted to file a motion to have the suit tossed. The athlete stated that when she refused to take part in the kneeling, which at the time was a virtue signal statement indicating public support for the Black Lives Matter movement, Adair began to insult and demean her as well as limiting her time to play during matches.
According to [U.S. District Judge Thomas T. Cullen], “Hening, who had been a major on-field contributor for two years prior to the 2020 season, also asserts that Adair removed her from the starting lineup or the next two games and drastically reduced her playing time in those games because she had engaged in this protected First Amendment activity. As a result, Hening resigned from the team after the third game of the season.” [emphasis mine]
You can read Cullen’s full decision here [pdf].
Cullen’s decision is intriguing not only because he not only threw out Adair’s effort to get the lawsuit dismissed, he also threw out Adair’s claim that he deserves “qualified immunity” as a public official. As the judge wrote, “[I]t has long been the law that state officials cannot retaliate against individuals or groups, including college students, for exercising their First Amendment rights,” and concludes that “Qualified immunity thus does not protect Adair from suit or entitle him to summary judgment.
In other words, Adair is personally liable for his actions in violating Hening’s first amendment rights.
Whether Hening will win in court of course remains unknown. She will have to prove that Adair punished her specifically for her beliefs, not because of her play. Based on some of the evidence outlined by the judge in his decision, however, it appears Hening has the evidence she needs. As the judge wrote:
At a team meeting the following day, Adair encouraged his players to reach a consensus on how to show support for social justice, at one point suggesting that they wear special warm-up jerseys. Immediately after that team meeting, Adair allegedly made snide remarks about the family of one of his players’ preference for “All Lives Matter” as opposed to “Black Lives Matter.”
The student manager who overheard Adair make these comments to the other coaches immediately reported it to the small group of players who were opposed to supporting BLM publicly. And it was no secret among the players and coaching staff that Hening was an outspoken conservative and supporter of former President Donald Trump. Macaulay Soto, the Director of Operations for the women’s soccer team and a BLM supporter, recalled that Hening “was the only one who consistently posted a lot of [conservative] things on her social media.”
The evidence of Adair’s apparent views on this issue (as reflected in his alleged criticism of “All Lives Matter” supporters) and Hening’s well-known conservative leanings and lack of support for BLM further support an inference that Adair had a retaliatory motive when he criticized, and later benched, Hening for refusing to kneel during the Unity Statement.
One data point in Cullen’s decision however suggests the future for free speech continues to be dim, whether Hening wins or not. Apparently, Adair was trying to deal with a split among his players. with the younger players all believing that no one was allowed to dissent from supporting Black Lives Matter.
[I]n the late summer of 2020, the Virginia Tech women’s soccer team, like many organizations and groups, was divided over whether and how to publicly support various social-justice initiatives (including BLM) in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd. Indeed, an apparent rift had developed over this issue between a large group of team members (mainly freshmen) who openly embraced BLM and a few upperclassmen who did not, causing the freshmen to complain directly to Adair about what they perceived as racism. [emphasis mine]
For the past five years it has increasingly appeared that the newer generations are loudly rejecting freedom and free speech, and are instead embracing blacklisting and censorship. This court case gives us another data point that confirms this trend.
It will take undaunted courage and determination to fight this new generation. They are not going to change their minds simply because the ones they blacklist win in court. Their effort to squelch freedom will go on, until they themselves experience a hard pushback. Every single person who believes in freedom better recognize this reality, and be prepared for the hard battles to come.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
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Kiersten Hening
Bring a gun to a knife fight: Charles Adair, the soccer coach for the woman’s team at Virginia Tech, has lost in his effort to dismiss a lawsuit against him by former player, Kiersten Hening, who he blacklisted from playing because she refused to kneel in support of Black Lives Matter during the National Anthem before a game.
Hening filed a lawsuit against Virginia Tech and Coach Adair in 2021 but Virginia Tech immediately attempted to file a motion to have the suit tossed. The athlete stated that when she refused to take part in the kneeling, which at the time was a virtue signal statement indicating public support for the Black Lives Matter movement, Adair began to insult and demean her as well as limiting her time to play during matches.
According to [U.S. District Judge Thomas T. Cullen], “Hening, who had been a major on-field contributor for two years prior to the 2020 season, also asserts that Adair removed her from the starting lineup or the next two games and drastically reduced her playing time in those games because she had engaged in this protected First Amendment activity. As a result, Hening resigned from the team after the third game of the season.” [emphasis mine]
You can read Cullen’s full decision here [pdf].
Cullen’s decision is intriguing not only because he not only threw out Adair’s effort to get the lawsuit dismissed, he also threw out Adair’s claim that he deserves “qualified immunity” as a public official. As the judge wrote, “[I]t has long been the law that state officials cannot retaliate against individuals or groups, including college students, for exercising their First Amendment rights,” and concludes that “Qualified immunity thus does not protect Adair from suit or entitle him to summary judgment.
In other words, Adair is personally liable for his actions in violating Hening’s first amendment rights.
Whether Hening will win in court of course remains unknown. She will have to prove that Adair punished her specifically for her beliefs, not because of her play. Based on some of the evidence outlined by the judge in his decision, however, it appears Hening has the evidence she needs. As the judge wrote:
At a team meeting the following day, Adair encouraged his players to reach a consensus on how to show support for social justice, at one point suggesting that they wear special warm-up jerseys. Immediately after that team meeting, Adair allegedly made snide remarks about the family of one of his players’ preference for “All Lives Matter” as opposed to “Black Lives Matter.”
The student manager who overheard Adair make these comments to the other coaches immediately reported it to the small group of players who were opposed to supporting BLM publicly. And it was no secret among the players and coaching staff that Hening was an outspoken conservative and supporter of former President Donald Trump. Macaulay Soto, the Director of Operations for the women’s soccer team and a BLM supporter, recalled that Hening “was the only one who consistently posted a lot of [conservative] things on her social media.”
The evidence of Adair’s apparent views on this issue (as reflected in his alleged criticism of “All Lives Matter” supporters) and Hening’s well-known conservative leanings and lack of support for BLM further support an inference that Adair had a retaliatory motive when he criticized, and later benched, Hening for refusing to kneel during the Unity Statement.
One data point in Cullen’s decision however suggests the future for free speech continues to be dim, whether Hening wins or not. Apparently, Adair was trying to deal with a split among his players. with the younger players all believing that no one was allowed to dissent from supporting Black Lives Matter.
[I]n the late summer of 2020, the Virginia Tech women’s soccer team, like many organizations and groups, was divided over whether and how to publicly support various social-justice initiatives (including BLM) in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd. Indeed, an apparent rift had developed over this issue between a large group of team members (mainly freshmen) who openly embraced BLM and a few upperclassmen who did not, causing the freshmen to complain directly to Adair about what they perceived as racism. [emphasis mine]
For the past five years it has increasingly appeared that the newer generations are loudly rejecting freedom and free speech, and are instead embracing blacklisting and censorship. This court case gives us another data point that confirms this trend.
It will take undaunted courage and determination to fight this new generation. They are not going to change their minds simply because the ones they blacklist win in court. Their effort to squelch freedom will go on, until they themselves experience a hard pushback. Every single person who believes in freedom better recognize this reality, and be prepared for the hard battles to come.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Here’s a person and a “college” (indoctrination center) that should be blacklisted. Oberlin hired an Iranian who is implicated in mass murder of dissidents as a professor/ Even Amnesty International levels accusations against him. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/nobel-laureate-calls-out-oberlin-college-for-whitewashing-role-of-professor-in-purge-of-iranian-dissidents/ar-AA15ur41?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=42c71f629ba0409da69e4fb5dfa0bf23 When does it lose its accreditation?
Big Man on Campus Charles Adair hasn’t had a real job in his entire life. he’s a failed soccer “star” relegated to coaching. (He has his own wikipedia page.)
I’d speculate that, in the Alternate Universe Adair was already rendered off-shore and {action-verb} with extreme prejudice, just the way he likes it.
Kiersten Hening Files Lawsuit
Kurt at Uncivil Law (December 19, 2022)
https://youtu.be/JbVi-HhiQfI
8:03
More and more I’m turning on the voice recorder app on my phone before going in to meetings.
James Street: That recorder should now always be on.
Related, because its all friggin related:
THE SOROSIAN GLOBALISTS WIN!
From the current omnibus spending bill: The bill states that the $1,563,143,000 in funds allocated to CBP for “Operations and Support” can’t be used “to acquire, maintain, or extend border security technology and capabilities, EXCEPT FOR TECHNOLOGY AND CAPABILITIES TO IMPROVE BORDER PATROL PROCESSING.”
Elections, when honest, and we can all clearly see and now understand through what the internal Twitter messages between the criminal government organization the FBI and the internal Twitterati who controlled and censored what information many in America had access to have consequences.
And you as a current American will be paying for these perverted and corrupt election consequences with your freedom, your country’s sovereignty and will be paying for it all through the taxes that you are legally compelled to provide.
And I say “Current” Americans because you and your family and the power of your vote as it is is currently being replaced by these desperate people from other countries who will be dependent on your government for their survival and will soon be made able to vote for that support and those benefits. Pon borders and a welfare state, not a rational combination.
The Chinese have a saying: “May you live in interesting times”, and so you do. Are you understanding what’s going on yet?
And who is to blame? Those politicians pictured below? Sure, they are without doubt your enemy in their pursuit of eternal political power and “progressive” control. All vial humans and former Americans IMO. But I blame the weak and compliant Republican party and their leaders who have allowed it without having the will and determination to shut it all down for as long as it takes to achieve some degree of balance.
They, the Republican leadership as well as the Democrat leadership have all sold you and your country out. Treason is treason no matter what package it comes in.
The Globalist agenda specifies that America be defanged and diluted with a population that does not identify as American but as dependents in order to get it in line and brought under control. America as founded is too strong and must be destroyed in order to be ruled by the Globalist / UN / EU style of governance model.
And so, we have been delivered.
What happens next without true long and strong American leadership is not known to me. American politics as is all politics is corrupt to the core. You until now have not been witness to it in such a clear and unambiguous manner. Are you understanding it all yet?
STRATEGY OVER MORALITY / S.O.M. / THE TWO CONVERSATIONS
EXPLANATION: Strategy Over Morality describes a two-tiered “conversation” between a Public and their Politically Empowered Leadership where the Public believes there is only a single, no tiered conversation occurring. And that single conversation is assumed by the Public to relate to the Public’s morality and truth model perspective.
CONCLUSION: The public lives and operates under a subjective moral code or within a “Pedestrian Realm” perspective which they assume their leadership which exists within the “Political Realm” is constrained by. This is a subjective false perspective conclusion on the part of the public. Leadership at its existential core is not about morality, truth and honesty. Politically empowered Political Realm leadership is about the fundamental exercise of power and “Its” subjective agenda interests and “It’s” political power prevailing. jgl 2011
https://apis.mail.aol.com/ws/v3/mailboxes/@.id==VjN-_95qz8vtNQnj2guvJpSi615JXjYizy9bcZuM2MCqJDk8zBIwKj0CmLH_qmCDE5NsTJVJXmOu9vG5vVhaOWavzw/messages/@.id==AGpN7eNH8886Y6MyLQJGCMGd19Y/content/parts/@.id==2/thumbnail?appid=AolMailNorrin&downloadWhenThumbnailFails=true&pid=2
Ah, both Virginia and Arizona are one-party consent States for purposes of recording.
Cotour-
yo, merry christmas!
dropping this in here.
Lake V. Hobbs (12/21/2022)
Viva & Barnes Livestream
https://youtu.be/qsaOvV55XWM
7:53:05
“Ah, both Virginia and Arizona are one-party consent States for purposes of recording.”
That’s cute. You still believe in the rule of law.
Merry Christmas Wayne (+ 6 PSI).
Thanks for the 8 hour video, I got this for you: https://youtu.be/-WsouJ4YzO4
:)
“How a Shockwave doubles its damage…”
Last Option Available (Sept 2021)
https://youtu.be/WRDFPJ7Yb_E
9:16
You do do your homework, a man who focuses on solving problems quickly, tear the band aid off and move on.
It has its place.
I am hopeful that those in Congress who have some stones will use their leverage while they have it and extort, cajole, threaten, brutalize, blackmail, whatever they have to do to wrestle control of the budget from the Democrats in short order. And then use their power to first defund much of the FBI and any other agencies who provide the now insane and anti-American Liberal / Leftist / Radical / Globalist / Democrats with their cover and what empowers them.
SHUT IT DOWN IF NEED BE!
(And that is why Trump had to go, no wants to *X* with “Crazy”. That is my kind of crazy!)
This is my wish for Christmas, Santa :)
Hope you are feeling well, I hear its getting very cold out there in the mid-west.
To my point:
“Republican Senators Hold Presser, Accuse Biden of “Intentional” Border Crisis – Then Vote for $1.7 Trillion Spending Bill with No Money for Border”
If you are unwilling because of fear to use the power you have when it is necessary then you have no power to begin with and are irrelevant.
If I were in the next Congress or the next Senate and had the numbers, there would be *NO* bills passed, none whatsoever unless my demands for sanity was satisfied in some great manner or way.
NONE!
Dave Smith and Michael Malice
on The Red Pill
https://youtu.be/8TBM0-OMsJE
2:46
Michael Malice: Marxism and Communism
[Lex Fridman 12-16-22]
https://youtu.be/FF2VTzJ1Sus
28:13