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Community colleges in the State University of New York System are neither financed nor controlled enough by New York's government to make them state entities entitled to legal immunity, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. The decision, by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, came in a lawsuit brought by a former adjunct professor, Carol Leitner, who was fired by Westchester Community College for purportedly making offensive comments in class. A lower court judge had rejected Westchester Community College's assertion that it should be immune from Leitner's lawsuit because it is a state entity. The appeals panel upheld that ruling, saying the state would generally not be responsible for satisfying financial judgments against the two-year institution and that New York's government lacks significant control over its operations.
