Former Yale doctor alleges she was fired over Trump comments

An ex-psychologist at Yale University who claimed she was wrongfully terminated for publicly raising concerns about the mental health of the former president Donald Trump and his allies was unsuccessful in her wrongful termination case against Yale University.

According to The Yale Daily News and The Hartford Courant, Bandy Lee, a psychiatrist who once worked at the Yale School of Medicine, alleged that the exclusive university terminated her employment and infringed upon her First Amendment rights.

According to the Daily News, US District Judge Sarah Merriam ruled on Tuesday that Lee’s nebulous claim that an undefined clause in the Faculty Handbook establishes a right to “academic freedom” is “plainly insufficient to show that [the] defendant undertook a contractual commitment to guarantee plaintiff continued reappointment.”

According to the sources, Lee’s dismissal was related to her 2020 tweets in which she said that renowned attorney Alan Dershowitz, who had previously defended Trump, and the former president’s followers “had shared insanity.” According to The Courant, Lee said she was carrying out her “responsibility to warn” the public about Trump’s mental health.

According to the reports, questions were raised over Lee’s behaviour, which some said violated the Goldwater rule of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). It adds that, as Insider previously reported, psychiatrists shouldn’t publicly comment on the mental health of prominent leaders unless they have personally evaluated them. Lee referred to the law as a “gag order,” according to the Courant.

Asserting that Lee’s case “had no legal foundation,” a Yale representative told the Daily News that the institution is happy with the court’s ruling. She “does not belong in a university context, educating children,” Dershowitz said, adding that he was not involved in her removal.

According to the Daily News, Lee intends to appeal because she wants her lawsuit to serve as a springboard for overturning the Goldwater rule.