Mike S. Adams graduated from Mississippi State University in 1993 with a PhD in criminology and became a professor at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (UNCW). He also wrote columns for Townhall and The Daily Wire and spoke frequently on First Amendment and pro-life issues. Although Mike twice won the Faculty Member of the Year Award, in 2006, he was denied a promotion to full professor and filed suit in federal court, alleging that UNCW had retaliated against him. The lawsuit set up a legal challenge concerning whether Garcetti v. Ceballos (2006) applied to college professors. In 2014, Mike finally won before a jury in federal court in North Carolina. He passed away in 2020.