A philosophy professor was banned for his comments about sex with minors. Now, he's suing to return to campus.

• Stephen Kershnar was banned from teaching at a SUNY campus in 2022 after his comments on pedophilia.
• Kershnar filed a lawsuit against SUNY in June, saying his civil rights were violated by the ban.

Philosophy professor Stephen Kershnar, who was prohibited from teaching students over his comments on pedophilia, had a first hearing this week in an attempt to get back in the classroom.

The lawsuit, which is between Kershnar and the State University of New York at Fredonia, had its first hearing Wednesday in New York's Western Federal District Court. The case dated back to comments he made in 2022 on the "Brain in a Vat" podcast about adult-child sex, saying that it was not necessarily a morally bad action.

"Imagine that an adult male wants to have sex with a 12-year-old girl. Imagine that she's a willing participant," Kershnar says on the now-infamous podcast episode. "It's a very standard, very widely held view that there's something deeply wrong about this, and it's wrong independent of it being criminalized. It's not obvious to me that it is in fact wrong. I think this is a mistake."

Kershnar has previously said that pedophilia should be criminalized as a matter of law, according to The New York Times. That didn't stop his podcast comments from blowing up online, eventually leading to petitions against him, per the Times.

Then, SUNY school administrators released a scathing statement calling Kershnar's statement "morally reprehensible and irresponsible," per WGRZ.

Ultimately, he was banned from campus. Now, he's taking the matter to court in an effort to return.

For the last year, Kershnar has still been employed by SUNY, but he cannot go to campus and has not been teaching classes; instead, he has been assigned to work that does not give him contact with students, per the Times. In June, Kershnar filed a lawsuit against two of SUNY's administrators, President Stephen Kolison Jr., and Executive Vice President and Provost David Starrett.

Representatives for SUNY did not respond immediately to Insider's requests for comment.

His complaint alleged a civil rights violation, violation of his right to free speech, and capitulation to the "Twitter mob."

Kolison and Starrett, however, saw the situation differently.

In a motion to dismiss the suit filed in late July, Kolison and Starrett's lawyers alleged that the lawsuit against the school does not have legal standing, and that his ban from campus was a matter of safety.

"Plaintiff's graphic speech about adult-child sexual relations was not made as a private citizen on a 'matter of public concern' and thus is not entitled to First Amendment protection," reads the motion. "Plaintiff contends his speech was extramural because it was made 'at home' and 'outside of his regular working hours.'"

Kershnar is represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which told Insider it was not commenting on the case at this time.