The Minnesota-based law firm Upper Midwest Law Center (UMLC) is taking on not just one, but multiple clients standing up against critical race theory. The law firm has taken legal action “on behalf of Minnesotans opposed to critical race theory (CRT) who argue that they’ve become victims of bullying and retaliation for speaking out against what they say is a divisive and discriminatory philosophy”, reports the Epoch Times.
The “complaints and lawsuits” were announced on July 30, on behalf of clients who “seek an end to the ‘official’ propagandizing of CRT and the bullying and retaliation which accompany it.” Doug Seaton, president of UMLC said in a statement, “our clients are bravely confronting CRT-inspired bullying, indoctrination, and retaliation, which isn’t ‘training’ or persuasion.”
“They have been insulted, lied about, threatened, demoted, and fired, simply for refusing to submit to this ideology. But the U.S. Constitution, the federal Civil Rights laws, and their Minnesota counterparts don’t permit this race-based discrimination, retaliation, compelled speech, and invasion of privacy” added Seaton.
One of the clients is Dr. Tara Gustilo, a Filipino American doctor who was “demoted essentially because of her polite opposition to the Critical Race Theory that’s saturating her organization.” Gustilo was chairwoman of obstetrics and gynecology at Hennepin Healthcare System (HHS).
Gustilo’s complaint alleges that HHS “engaged in discriminatory and retaliatory behavior by demoting me on the basis of race due to my refusal, as a person of color, to subscribe to Critical Race Theory and the views of the Black Lives Matter movement and even admitting that such refusal served as the ‘trigger’ for my demotion.”
The Epoch Times reports, “Other UMLC clients made similar allegations, with a Native American man claiming that his employer forced him to retire early due to his opposition to CRT and the parents of a Lakeville area student alleging viewpoint discrimination at their daughter’s school for refusing to allow ‘All Lives Matter’ signs to be displayed while letting ‘Black Lives Matter’ posters to be put up.”
