Policy analyst Mike Godwin at the Center for Democracy and Technology was not surprised with the outcome. That's not something that we normally let people go to court for. The reviews that sparked the suit are riddled with profanity and homophobic comments. Bernard Burk, a lawyer with Howard, Rice, et al. , and one of the lawyers representing Lathouwers, said that comments like these are a minute fraction of the 6,000 reviews written about over 600 teachers at City College . In fact, he said, over two-thirds of the reviews on the site are positive.
Opinions can be mean, they can be hurtful, but they're still constitutionally protected.
Despite the settlement, Curzon-Brown maintains the law must be changed to protect people like himself. The remaining money will be used to lobby for a change in the law. The CDT's Godwin said that trying to change the law is a bad idea. Lathouwers received no money in the settlement. Ryan never asked for a dime.