Beginning in April 2016, James Cook University took a number of disciplinary measures over two years against Ridd, which culminated in Ridd being fired, for refusing to take down confidential information which he had placed publicly online.[5] The university denied that the dismissal was over Ridd's views on climate change.[11] Ridd filed two crowdfunded lawsuits, the second over the dismissal.
On 16 April 2019, Ridd initially won the lawsuit,[12] with James Cook University found to be in violation of the Fair Work Act 2009; in September 2019, Ridd was awarded in excess of AU$1 million, together with AU$125,000 pecuniary penalty. While the two parties continue to disagree whether the case related to academic freedom, the ruling judge said the case was "purely and simply about the proper construction of a clause in an enterprise agreement",[12] although he also stated James Cook University had "not understood the whole concept of intellectual freedom".[13] In July 2020, JCU won an appeal against this judgement from the full bench of the Federal Court.[14][15] Ridd appealed to the High Court of Australia, but that appeal was dismissed.[16][17]
