James Frederick Tracy (born 1965) is an American

conspiracy theorist A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * * * * The term has a nega ...

and former professor who has espoused the view that some American

mass shootings There is a lack of consensus on how to define a mass shooting. Most terms define a minimum of three or four victims of gun violence (not including the shooter or in an inner city) in a short period of time, although an Australian study from 20 ...

did not occur and are hoaxes. Tracy holds a PhD degree, awarded by the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...

in 2002. He was previously a tenured professor of

communication Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inqui ...

Florida Atlantic University Florida Atlantic University (Florida Atlantic or FAU) is a public research university with its main campus in Boca Raton, Florida, and satellite campuses in Dania Beach, Davie, Fort Lauderdale, Jupiter, and Fort Pierce. FAU belongs to the 12-ca ...

at Boca Raton. He maintains that the

Boston Marathon bombing The Boston Marathon bombing was a domestic terrorist attack that took place during the annual Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. Two terrorists, brothers Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, planted two homemade pressure cooker bombs, w ...

was a false flag operation perpetrated by the United States government, and that the

Sandy Hook massacre The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, United States, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people. Twenty of the victims were children between six and seven years old, and t ...

did not occur but was a hoax also perpetrated by the United States government. There is a "Sandy Hook truther" movement founded upon this conspiracy theory. Tracy demanded that

Leonard Pozner Leonard Pozner is the father of a Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victim, Noah Pozner. He is the founder of the HONR Network, which supports the victims of mass casualty violence as well as the targets of online hate speech and harassment. ...

, the father of Sandy Hook victim Noah Pozner, provide proof of his son's death. As a result, Florida Atlantic University initiated a procedure to dismiss Tracy, who had

tenure Tenure is a category of academic appointment existing in some countries. A tenured post is an indefinite academic appointment that can be terminated only for cause or under extraordinary circumstances, such as financial exigency or program disco ...

, in December 2015. He was dismissed in January 2016, although a statement from his former employer asserted that Tracy was fired for repeatedly neglecting or refusing to file standard paperwork disclosing activities or employment outside his job that might pose

conflicts of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple wikt:interest#Noun, interests, finance, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, t ...

. On April 25, 2016, he filed suit for wrongful termination. On December 12, 2017, Tracy's termination was upheld by a jury. In 2018, civil rights attorneys for Tracy filed an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. In November 2020, Tracy lost the appeal, with the ''

Tampa Bay Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single ...

'' reporting, "The opinion said Tracy argued that 'no reasonable juror could have found that his blog speech did not motivate the university to fire him,' but it concluded that he 'cherry-picks' the evidence and that he was fired for insubordination related to not filing reports about his outside activities." Tracy then appealed to the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

, but in December of 2021 the court declined his appeal without comment.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tracy, James 1965 births Living people Florida Atlantic University faculty American conspiracy theorists University of Iowa alumni Place of birth missing (living people)