Frat Behind Racist Chant to Sue OU

Okahoma's SAE hires the lawyer who defended Timothy McVeigh
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 13, 2015 1:44 PM CDT
Frat Behind Racist Chant to Sue University
Two men load a couch from the now closed University of Oklahoma's Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house into a moving truck, in Norman, Okla.   (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

The fraternity whose racist chant brought national scorn and ridicule to the University of Oklahoma plans to sue the university. The newly hired attorney for Sigma Alpha Epsilon tells KFOR that the school unfairly damaged the reputations of all SAE members when it shut down the frat house after the incident. Stephen Jones—described by NBC News as a "maverick attorney" best known for defending Timothy McVeigh—adds that the two students expelled over the chant aren't racists but merely "lacked judgment in a social setting," in the words of KFOR. Jones doesn't represent those two, notes KOCO.

"Obviously there are issues about First Amendment rights, due process, and real estate issues, but we're still gathering documents," says Jones. NBC notes a small-world aspect to the litigation: Jones once unsuccessfully ran for the Senate against incumbent David Boren but got trounced. Boren is now OU president and the man who handed down the punishment to SAE. (More University of Oklahoma stories.)

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