NOTRE DAME, Indiana (LifeSiteNews) – The Indiana Supreme Court rejected a left-wing Notre Dame professor’s bid to revive her failed defamation case against a student newspaper for exposing her pro-abortion advocacy.
In 2023, Notre Dame sociology professor Tamara Kay sued the university’s independent student newspaper, The Irish Rover, over its coverage of her pro-abortion activism, specifically two articles that included a photo of her office door bearing the message, “This is a SAFE SPACE to get help and information on ALL Healthcare issues and access — confidentially with care and compassion,” as well as a letter “J,” meant to denote unofficial assistance in accessing abortion pills. Kay had also reportedly offered to assist with abortion costs and shared abortion travel financing information on social media.
“I am not actively doing that,” Kay claimed when asked about promoting abortion and then amended to, “I am doing that as a private citizen, so that’s been cleared by the university… I talked to the dean and have also spoken to ND Media about policies.”
Kay’s defamation complaint claimed the Rover’s reporting on her door sign was “false and defamatory” because the sign did not explicitly mention abortion pills. It also alleged that several quotes from the College Democrats meeting never occurred, such as her encouraging students to exercise academic freedom for abortion advocacy. She further argued that the Rover’s coverage led to her being harassed and threatened. The paper stood by its reporting.
READ: Indiana AG launches investigation into University of Notre Dame’s DEI policies
In January 2024, Justice Steven David of St. Joseph County Superior Court dismissed Kay’s lawsuit, finding that she did “not present any evidence that shows that The Irish Rover had any doubts about the truth of their statements before they were published,” that the paper’s statements were made “with a reasonable basis in law and fact,” and that Kay had no reasonable expectation that her pro-abortion advocacy would “not become newsworthy at Notre Dame and elsewhere.”
On June 26, the Rover reported that Indiana’s highest court voted 4-1 against Kay’s petition to take up the case after the Indiana Court of Appeals also turned her down in February.
“With the final and definitive dismissal of this baseless case, the journalistic integrity of the Irish Rover, as well as the honorable mission of the paper, is upheld,” the Rover editorial staff wrote. “The editorial staff of the Irish Rover would like to extend their thanks to Jim Bopp, his legal team, and all who helped tirelessly to defend the paper’s journalistic standing.”
The University of Notre Dame says that the “Catholic intellectual and moral traditions provide the underlying foundation for our aspirations as a community of scholars and administrators and shape the spirit with which we engage each other and the world,” but in recent years its commitment to that foundation has been called into doubt.
In 2022, Notre Dame’s Office of Public Affairs and Communications promoted multiple pro-abortion articles co-authored by Kay on social media despite the university’s official policy to “recogniz(e) and uphol(d) the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death,” “(c)onsistent with the teaching of the Catholic Church on such issues as abortion.”
READ: Notre Dame provost says DEI ‘equally important’ as Catholic faith in hiring process
Other past Notre Dame violations of Catholic principles include participation in LGBT “Pride” Month, mandating COVID-19 vaccines despite their use of fetal cells from aborted babies, insuring abortifacient birth-control methods, inviting pro-abortion former president of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos to deliver its 2023 commencement address, and hosting a drag show.
