Tag Archives: Morgan Bettinger

Morgan Bettinger, the former University of Virginia student who claimed in a federal civil rights lawsuit that she was ostracized, bullied, and abused at UVA based on false charges and faulty legal grounds, has resolved her lawsuit with the university and its administrators.

Brown & Gavalier, the Charlottesville law firm that represented her, issued the following statement in response to our inquiry: “We are pleased to report that Morgan Bettinger’s lawsuit has been resolved. Neither she nor our law firm have any further comment at this time.” The firm declined to make Ms. Bettinger available for comment and declined to disclose the terms of the settlement.

University of Virginia spokesman Brian Coy said: “This case was resolved by a mutual and amicable agreement and dismissed following a joint motion by both parties.”

The Bettinger saga drew national attention as an extreme example of “cancel culture” on campus. To learn more about what was done to Bettinger, the extent and severity of the harm she claimed to have suffered as a result, and her allegations regarding the UVA Administration’s role in the events and responsibility for the alleged deprivations of her federally protected civil rights, read the lawsuit here.

— JAB

The tragic tale of Morgan Bettinger’s abuse at the hands of a Twitter Outrage Mob and the subsequent failure of the University of Virginia’s judicial processes continue to garner national attention.

Last week The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal covered the story in “A ‘Canceled’ Student Strikes Back.”

Referring to Bettinger’s lawsuit against the University of Virginia, author Graham Hillier writes: “To read that complaint now is to come face-to-face with the human cost of the guilty-until-proven-innocent ‘justice’ now common on American campuses.”

National Review quotes the Martin Center article in a brief post headlined, “UVA Student Maligned by Her University Seeks Justice.”

Morgan Bettinger

Note: I published this article originally in April 2022 on the Bacon’s Rebellion blog. In an oversight, I neglected to cross-post to the Jefferson Council website. I am rectifying that oversight now to maintain a complete record of UVA free-speech controversies here. — JAB

by James A. Bacon

On July 17, 2020, Morgan Bettinger was driving home from her job along a street in Charlottesville that flanked the downtown pedestrian mall where an unlicensed protest was occurring. Demonstrators roamed the street, so Bettinger, a University of Virginia 4th-year student, got out and chatted with the driver of a city garbage truck, which was blocking the road. In a throwaway remark she said, “It’s a good thing you are here because, otherwise, these people would have been speed bumps.”

The quip evoked the death of Heather Heyer a few years previously during the Unite the Right rally when a White supremacist ran his car into a crowd of counter-demonstrators very nearby. Overhearing the comment, two bystanders interpreted her to be saying that protesters would make good speed bumps. Word quickly spread. Demonstrators aggressively followed her in her car as she slowly backed, asking, “Was that a threat?”

One thing led to another and Bettinger wound up in front of the student-run University Judicial Committee (UJC). In what she and her attorney Charles “Buddy” Weber view as a kangaroo court proceeding, she was found guilty of violating the University’s Standards of Conduct. The UJC expelled Bettinger from UVa but held the sanction in abeyance on the condition that she not violate the standards of conduct again. Her actions, wrote the UJC panel, were “shameful” and put members of the community at risk. Continue reading →