As a result of the trustees’ retaliation against him, “Lipton has sustained injuries and damages” including loss of professional opportunities, economic loss and “humiliation and embarrassment," the lawsuit said. 

Trustees Vassar and Denno did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publication. 

Lipton told The State News that the lawsuit was born out of a necessity to hold the trustees accountable. He said the trustees incorrectly characterized his comments in a way that "silenced" him and "materially hurt his career."

Lipton’s comments were made following the board’s first public meeting after a letter from Trustee Brianna Scott earlier that month detailed widespread allegations of misconduct by then-board Chair Rema Vassar and called for her resignation. 

In a statement to the Detroit News — referencing disruptions by meeting attendees in support of Vassar — Lipton said Vassar had “elected to let the mob rule the room.” (The faculty senate, then-chaired by Lipton, had voted prior to the meeting to call for Vassar’s resignation). 

"The chaos brought and disrespect shown by her supporters could have been stopped by a single statement from Chair Vassar, yet she elected to let the mob rule the room," he said.

Lipton’s language was perceived by some to be racially charged. Black student leader Missy Chola told The State News in March that the comments weaponized stereotypes that Black people are inherently dangerous or angry. 

At the board’s next meeting in December, Lipton apologized for his comments, saying he was not referencing any specific racial or ethnic group, and was instead criticizing then-chair Vassar for not calling for order during the meeting. 

Months later, an outside investigation launched in response to Scott’s allegations against Vassar found that Vassar and her ally on the board, Dennis Denno, had been encouraging students to publicly decry Lipton for his comments. The investigation, conducted by law firm Miller & Chevalier, corroborated several other allegations of misconduct Scott made in her letter calling for Vassar’s resignation, and refuted others. The investigation’s findings are cited repeatedly in the lawsuit. 

The investigation recommended the two trustees be censured and referred to the governor for potential removal from office. The board voted to take those actions at a March special meeting. Shortly before that meeting, Vassar resigned as board chair.

To support its finding that the trustees used students to orchestrate a campaign against Lipton, the investigation relied on texts between an anonymous student and Denno. In those texts, Denno gave the student the contact of a reporter, told them to contact said reporter, and instructed the student to tell the reporter “Lipton=racist.”

That anonymous student was Palestinian student activist Saba Saed, who told The State News in March that she cooperated with the investigation because she believed the trustees had been manipulating her for personal gain. 

The investigation also found that Vassar had encouraged a student to file a complaint with MSU’s accrediting body arguing Lipton’s language endangered Black and brown students. That student has since denied that she was instructed by Vassar to file the complaint and said the evidence used to support said claim was insufficient and incorrect. 

Vassar criticized the veracity of Miller & Chevalier’s investigation in a March letter written by her attorneys. In it, Vassar’s attorneys said she wasn’t awarded due process in the investigation and that it drew conclusions based on insufficient evidence. 

The lawsuit also argues that the board has “continued retaliation against [Lipton] to the Present Day.”

Namely, the lawsuit details a Sept. 5 “lunch meeting” attended by both Lipton and Vassar wherein faculty liaisons requested that the board “develop a statement regarding their own commitment to civil discourse.”

That request was apparently in relation to MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz’s continued promotion of “civil discourse” on campus. 

In that meeting, Vassar asked Lipton to “share an example of a lack of civil discourse in the last year by the board,” the lawsuit said. 

In response, Lipton cited an incident at the March special meeting where Vassar appeared to raise her middle finger while other trustees were speaking. MSU’s Office of Audit Risk and Compliance investigated that incident and determined that Vassar’s gesture was intentional and “prolonged.”

Vassar responded to Lipton that the claim she intentionally raised her middle finger was false and “inexplicably, ‘a result of eczema,’” the lawsuit said. 

She continued that Lipton “did not have any ground to speak about civil discourse, since he had used the term ‘mob’ to label students, and since in her opinion, he had displayed an absence of self-reflection in his October 29 quote to The Detroit News.”

Lipton’s lawsuit characterized this interaction as an attempt by Vassar to “embarrass and humiliate” Lipton “in front of his superiors."

The lawsuit also criticizes the board for not holding the two trustees accountable for their misconduct, potentially "exposing" others to future "abuse" by Vassar and Denno.  

Specifically, it says the board didn't adhere to the censure it placed on the two trustees by allowing them to be present at Guskiewicz's formal investiture ceremony over the weekend. 

"At that ceremony, Vassar and Denno were permitted to sit on the stage with university leaders and visiting dignitaries and share the spotlight with the rest of the Board in full academic regalia, despite being suspended from all board related activities," the lawsuit said.

Lipton said the two trustees' presence at the ceremony "shows that this board is more interested in maintaining its interpersonal relationships than securing and advancing the future of the institution and protecting its people."

Board Chair Dan Kelly did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.

MSU spokesperson Emily Guerrant declined to comment on the litigation, though she did say the university's indemnification policy — intended to cover legal costs for MSU personnel facing litigation — would not cover Lipton in this instance. 

"We wouldn't pay for someone to sue ourselves," she said. 

MSU's Office of the General Counsel will represent the board in the litigation, Guerrant said.