MADISON, Wis. (AP) — In a closely watched First Amendment rights case, a former University of Wisconsin campus chancellor who was fired after making pornographic films with his wife argued Friday for keeping his tenured teaching position even as he faces removal for unethical behavior.
Joe Gow, who had served as chancellor of UW-La Crosse for nearly 17 years, hoped to convince a personnel committee of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents to recommend he be allowed to retain tenure and return to teaching communications courses.
Gow has been on paid leave from his faculty position since the regents fired him as chancellor in 2023, shortly after university leaders became aware of the videos that were posted on pornographic websites.
Gow’s behavior has been “unethical, hypocritical and unacceptable,” university attorney Wade Harrison told six regents who form the personnel committee on Friday.
“Enough is enough," he said. “Dr. Joe needs to go.”
A UW-La Crosse faculty committee unanimously recommended in July that Gow lose his faculty position, saying he exploited his position to generate more interest and revenue from the videos. University attorneys argued Friday that he should lose his tenured teaching position because he harmed the university’s reputation and interfered with its mission.
Gow has established that he is unable to recognize his own poor judgment, university attorneys argued in filings ahead of the hearing.
The regents personnel committee discussed the case behind closed doors after taking testimony Friday. Its recommendation, also secret, will then be taken up at a meeting of the full Board of Regents as soon as next week.
The case has garnered national attention both for the salaciousness of a high-profile university official making pornographic movies and publicly talking about it and the questions it raises about free speech rights.
Gow argued that his videos and two e-books he and his wife, Carmen, have published about their experiences in adult films are protected by the First Amendment.
“You don’t need the First Amendment to protect ‘The Star Spangled Banner,’” Gow’s attorney, Mark Leitner, told the committee. “You don’t need the First Amendment to protect easy and comforting speech. It’s exactly the opposite. We need the First Amendment precisely when the danger of stifling, controversial, unpopular speech is at its highest. And that’s what we have here.”
Harrison, the university's attorney, countered that the videos themselves are legal, but they are not protected speech under his employment contract.
“Gow’s pornography videos are not protected by the First Amendment,” Harrison said.
Gow has gotten what he wants, which is attention on his books and videos, Harrison said.
The regents asked no questions.
“It was a very ominous sign that no regent asked a question,” Gow said after the hearing. “That to me indicates that this has all been preordained.”
When asked if he would consider filing a lawsuit if his tenure is revoked, Gow said, “Would you blame us if we did?”
The school is pushing to fire Gow for unethical conduct, insubordination for refusing to cooperate with an investigation and violating computer policies. The UW-La Crosse employee handbook requires faculty to “exhibit a level of behavior supporting the university mission.”
Gow has maintained that he and his wife produced the pornographic materials on their own time. He insists the videos and the books never mentioned UW-La Crosse or his role at the university.
However, Gow was criticized in 2018 for inviting porn actor Nina Hartley to speak on campus. She was paid $5,000 out of student fees to appear. He developed the idea of bringing her to campus after shooting a pornographic video with her, the university said.
Gow and his wife's e-books were written under pseudonyms: “Monogamy with Benefits: How Porn Enriches Our Relationship” and “Married with Benefits — Our Real-Life Adult Industry Adventures." But they also star in a YouTube channel called “Sexy Healthy Cooking” in which the couple cooks meals with porn actors.
Gow's hope to return to teaching in the classroom is opposed by his department chair, Linda Dickmeyer. She said that because Gow has not taught for 20 years, he would be assigned general education courses, but she opposes allowing him to return to teaching in any role.
Former University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow and his wife, Carmen Wilson, take questions after a hearing before a committee that will determine whether he can teach after being fired as the campus leader for making pornographic videos on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Scott Bauer)
Former University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow, right, and his wife, Carmen Wilson, center, take questions after a hearing before a committee that will determine whether he can teach after being fired as the campus leader for making pornographic videos, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Scott Bauer)
FILE - This undated photo provided by University of Wisconsin system shows UW-La Crosse Chancellor Joe Gow. (University of Wisconsin-La Crosse via AP, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Marc Rosenberg, founder and CEO of The Edge Desk in Deerfield, Illinois is getting ready to introduce a fancy ergonomic chair designed to reduce customers’ back pain and boost their productivity. He figures the most expensive one will sell for more than $1,000. But he can’t settle on a price, and he is reluctantly reducing the shipment he’s bringing to the United States from China.
There’s a reason for his caution: President Donald Trump’s ever-changing, on-again, off-again tariff war with America’s three biggest trading partners – Mexico, Canada and China.
The latest reversal came Thursday. Two days after imposing 25% taxes — tariffs — on all imports from Canada and Mexico and threatening to detonate more than $1.3 billion in annual U.S. trade in North America, Trump announced that he was suspending many of the levies on Mexico and some of them on Canada for a month. This was an expansion of his Wednesday announcement when he exempted auto imports from both countries for 30 days, and it also comes after a previous monthlong tariff reprieve for Canada and Mexico right before they were to take effect Feb. 4.
“Trump is jerking around the entire continent of North America right now, it’s stupid and it has to stop," Democratic Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia said. "Today there are businesses that don’t even know if the goods they trade in are subject to Trump’s tariffs. Everything Trump does on trade seems designed to maximize chaos and uncertainty.
Rosenberg and his ergonomic furniture, meanwhile, are contending with a 20% tariff on imports from China – which Trump on Tuesday raised from 10% -- but he’s not sure where the tariff will actually land.
“The misdirection is making it very tough to plan for the year,’’ he said.
Tariffs cause economic pain in part because they’re a tax paid by importers that often gets passed along to consumers, adding to inflationary pressure. They also draw retaliation from trading partners, which can hurt all economies involved.
But import taxes can cause economic damage in another way: by complicating the decisions businesses have to make, including which suppliers to use, where to locate factories, what prices to charge. And that uncertainty can cause them to delay or cancel investments that help drive economic growth.
“It creates an enormous amount of uncertainty for multinational companies that sell products worldwide, that import from the rest of the world, that run these complex supply chains through multiple countries,” said Eswar Prasad, an economist at Cornell University. “The uncertainty is going to be very unsettling for businesses and ... it will hurt business investment.''
During Trump’s first-term trade battles, U.S. business investment weakened late in 2019, convincing the Federal Reserve to cut its benchmark interest rate three times in second half of the year to provide some offsetting economic stimulus.
Trump 2.0 is even more unnerving to business. The first Trump administration imposed tariffs on specific targets — steel and aluminum and most goods from China — after lengthy investigations.
This time, Trump has invoked his power to declare a national emergency — ostensibly over the flow of illegal drugs and immigrants across U.S. borders — to impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China with the stroke of a pen. And he’s expanded his targets. Next month, for example, he intends to impose “reciprocal tariffs’’ on countries that charge higher import taxes than America does.
“Just the threat of those tariff increases and potential retaliations are putting a brake on — on investment, on consumption decisions, on employment, hiring, all the rest of it,’’ European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde said after the ECB cut interest rates Thursday to support Europe’s struggling economy.
His tariffs on Canada and Mexico effectively blow up a 2020 North American trade deal he negotiated himself five years ago. “Past trade agreements simply don’t mean much if the president can unilaterally violate them and impose tariffs with no checks at all,” said Douglas Irwin, an economist at Dartmouth College.
Adding to the uncertainty: It’s unclear what Trump is trying to achieve by plastering tariffs on American trading partners. Sometimes he cites border security. Sometimes he emphasizes the revenue that tariffs can generate for the Treasury — money that can help finance his proposed tax cuts. Sometimes he points to America’s big trade deficits with most other countries.
Since the goals are cloudy, it’s hard to see what it will take to make Trump’s tariffs go away.
Not only that, but he’s imposed the tariffs erratically, creating even more confusion. For instance, his administration had to reverse itself last month after ending a customs loophole – the “de minimis” exemption -- allowing duty-free entry into the United States of packages from China and Hong Kong worth less than $800. Turned out, the U.S. postal service needed more time to figure out how to collect the duties.
Businesses are baffled. “I’ve talked to multiple companies that are saying, ‘We’re not moving forward with any investment. We need this to be settled,’” said trade lawyer Gregory Husisian at the law firm Foley & Lardner. At least in Trump’s first term “they knew what the ground rules were. Now they don’t know if we’re playing Monopoly or tic-tac-toe.’’
Respondents to the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing survey, out Monday, voiced complaints about the tariff uncertainty. “There is no clear direction from the administration on how they will be implemented, so it’s harder to project how they will affect business,” a transportation equipment company said. A chemicals firm griped: “The tariff environment regarding products from Mexico and Canada has created uncertainty and volatility among our customers.’’
“Right now, the tariffs are putting everybody off balance because of their unpredictability and uncertainty,” said John Gulliver, president of the New England-Canada Business Council.
Taylor Samuels, the owner of Las Almas Rotas, a bar and restaurant in Dallas, depends on Mexico for much of the alcohol he offers.
The uncertainty surrounding the tariffs, including the potential impact on the price of raw materials like steel and lumber, are forcing him to review his plans to build a new restaurant.
“That construction budget is now under review and may likely be delayed ... as I recalculate costs that have already been budgeted,” he said.
Similarly, Sandya Dandamudi of GI Stone, a stone supplier in Chicago, said builders are having to rethink their plans.
“Developers of commercial projects like high-rises and hotels budget two years in advance, so they don’t account for new tariffs,” she said. “Those budgets will be blown.’’
Dandamudi said that companies will either succeed in passing the tariffs along to their customers or they will be forced to cancel projects.
“The tariffs will be devastating for small businesses like ours,” she said. “Going forward, we won’t be able to sign any new contracts unless clients address the tariffs.”
Holly Seidewand, owner of First Fill Spirits, a shop in Saratoga Springs, New York, that sells Canadian whisky and other specialty spirits, said her plans for the future have been put on hold due to the tariffs. Her original plan for 2025 was to almost double her inventory and the selection she offered.
“For now, we have no plans of adding more shelving or space for new items, we will stick to the footprint we have,” she said. “This will delay the growth of our business, making us a bit stagnant.’’
D’Innocenzio and Anderson reported from New York. Associated Press Staff Writers Rodrique Ngowi in Billerica, Massachusetts and Christopher Rugaber in Washington contributed to this report.
Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau holds a news conference on imposed U.S. tariffs in Ottawa, Ontario, on Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (Adrian Wyld /The Canadian Press via AP)
An employee removes American-made wine from their shelves at Bishop's Cellar in Halifax on Wednesday, March 5, 2025. (Darren Calabrese /The Canadian Press via AP)
Canadian Bourbon sits on a shelf at a store in Pittsburgh, Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Avocados imported from Mexico sit at a grocery store in San Francisco, Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Workers harvest cabbage Wednesday, March 5, 2025, on a field less than ten miles from the border with Mexico, in Holtville, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
A truck loaded with produce from Mexico and Canada passes through Pharr, Texas, Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Isaac Arguelles stocks Mexican-grown green onions at a market as tariffs against Mexico go into effect Tuesday, March 4, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
In this image made from video, Canadian flag pins are on display at the Whiskeyjack Boutique gift shop Tuesday, March 4, 2025, in Windsor, Ontario. (AP Photo/Mike Householder)
FILE - Trucks loaded with avocados are seen reflected on a rear view mirror as they are escorted by the police on their way to the city of Uruapan, in Santa Ana Zirosto, Michoacan state, Mexico, Jan. 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Armando Solis, File)
FILE - Workers sort avocados at a packing plant in Uruapan, Mexico, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Armando Solis, File)
