A University of Michigan Law School professor has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a federal appeals court decision that dismissed her employment discrimination lawsuit, citing what an ethics expert characterized as "illegal and unconstitutional" conduct by university officials.
Dr. Laura Beny
The petition centers on allegations that then-Dean Mark West disciplined Beny in 2022 after baselessly suggesting she might have access to weapons — creating what Professor Richard W. Painter, former White House Chief Ethics Lawyer under President George W. Bush, called a "dangerous racial stereotype" violating Second and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
"For a state official, particularly a law dean, with no basis whatsoever, to state in a disciplinary letter that the professor who is being disciplined might have access to weapons is an act of intimidation," Painter wrote in testimony submitted with the case.
Beny was hired in 2003 as only the second African-American female tenure-track professor in the law school's then-144-year history. She holds a J.D. and Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University and serves as the Earl Warren DeLano Professor of Law.
According to the petition, West admitted in deposition testimony that he had "never gone through the specifics" of Regents Bylaw 5.09, which establishes mandatory procedures for disciplining tenured faculty. Beny was the only tenured professor West disciplined during his more than 10 years as dean.
"What these law-school deans are doing to African Americans is unconscionable, and it is time for the Supreme Court to stop the lower courts from validating the abuses," said Amos N. Jones, Beny's lead attorney, and a prominent civil rights lawyer.
The university's March 2022 disciplinary action imposed a five-year salary freeze on Beny and permanently removed her from the law school's "lock step" salary policy, which had kept her compensation equal to her cohort. The discipline stated her salary would not return to that of her cohort even after the freeze ended.
Jones said that Painter's report demands immediate federal investigation by the University of Michigan, the Michigan Attorney General, and the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice. He noted that if Dean West's claim was accurate that concerns about Beny having weapons were "a frequent topic of conversation among faculty members," it would "suggest racial bias on the part of a substantial portion of the law faculty."
The petition also references evidence that the university investigated and remedied racially biased grading by other professors, including one white male professor who agreed to change a grade assigned to a Black student after administrators found merit in the discrimination complaint. The filing contrasts this response with the university's treatment of Beny for raising similar concerns.
A U.S. District Court dismissed Beny's lawsuit on summary judgment in 2024 after two years of discovery. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that decision in a 3-0 ruling in July 2025, applying the "honest belief" defense.
The Supreme Court petition argues the doctrine creates a "tautological trap" that allows judges to dismiss discrimination cases by accepting employers' claims of honest belief, even when substantial evidence contradicts those beliefs. The Third and D.C. Circuits have rejected the doctrine, while other circuits apply it in varying degrees, creating what Beny's attorneys argue is a circuit split requiring Supreme Court review.
West recently became Provost of Washington University in St. Louis.
"Why was West just made the provost of Washington University in St. Louis amidst this grotesque scandal?" Jones asked. "And why is the University of Michigan paying its defense lawyers so much money trying to sanctify the sins now exposed before the Supreme Court?"
The University of Michigan did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
"The four appellate lawyers on our team have made quite clear the legal errors requiring reversal," said Beny. "I'm standing for truth and justice as I continue in loyal service to my students and the entire university community."
Beny is represented by attorneys from civil rights firms in Washington, D.C., Denver, Charlotte and Newport News.
