BOULDER, Colo. -- Just when you thought the saga between Ward Churchill and the University of Colorado was over, it's not.

The CU professor is challenging his dismissal from the university and it could take another year before a jury hears the case.

"I am going nowhere," Churchill said Tuesday after university regents voted 8-1 to dismiss him.

The regents said that they fired the ethnic studies professor on grounds of academic misconduct and plagiarism. The university said he is not being fired for his volatile speech about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Churchill's essay, titled "Some People Push Back: On Justice Of Roosting Chickens," compared some of the victims of the World Trade Center to Nazi Adolf Eichmann, who helped orchestrate the Holocaust. That comparison sparked a national outrage and forced school officials to closely scrutinize Churchill's academic writings, research, and even his ethnicity.

Churchill's lawyer said they are "now on offense" and he will electronically file a First Amendment retaliation lawsuit on Wednesday. Attorney David Lane said this is an amendment to a pending lawsuit that Churchill had filed in October 2006 over a salary dispute.

Lane anticipated that the earliest that the case would go to court is in 2008.

Lane argues that Churchill wasn't fired for academic misconduct but for his controversial essay and that the regent's meeting on Tuesday, where they allowed the professor and his attorney to argue their case, was a "scripted performance" with a known conclusion.

"We're out of kangaroo court and going into real court," Lane said.

If Churchill wins the lawsuit, Lane said the school could end up paying Churchill's legal fees and may have to reinstate him.

"The message is, there will be a payback for free speech," Lane added.

Churchill, an ethnic studies professor who makes $96,000 a year, began working at CU in 1978 and became tenured in 1991.

He has been on paid administrative leave since May 2006, when the university's investigation began. Churchill will receive one year's salary as a tenured professor, following his dismissal, CU officials said.

University officials say Churchill's remarks regarding Sept. 11, 2001, are protected under the First Amendment. However, school investigators reviewing Churchill's other works accused him of plagiarism, falsification and other misconduct. University President Hank Brown and an interim chancellor had recommended that the regents fire Churchill.

But another panel -- the Privilege and Tenure Committee -- recommended that he be suspended for one year without pay and a demotion.

Regent Cindy Carlisle cast the only no vote. Board Chair Pat Hayes said during a press conference that Carlisle didn't deny the charges, but was more concerned about the effort to discharge Churchill.

In a statement Tuesday night, CU said Churchill was dismissed "for conduct that fell below minimum standards of professional integrity."

"The University of Colorado values academic freedom as the bedrock of any university. But for academic freedom to thrive, it must be accompanied by academic and professional integrity," CU said in its release.

The university said it found a pattern of serious, repeated and deliberate research misconduct involving fabrication, falsification, improper citation and plagiarism.

Churchill's scholarship was examined by three separate panels and more than 20 tenured faculty members who conducted a thorough review, and who found that it fell beneath the acceptable standards of their profession and the expectations of faculty at CU, the university said.

Most People Supportive Of Decision To Fire Professor

"I have carefully reviewed the documentation and reports prepared by the various committees and by Professor Churchill, and I fully endorse this decision," CU Chancellor "Bud" Peterson said in an e-mail sent to every CU student.

"The young people who come to us are transformed by this institution, and they in turn, transform it with their energy, idealism and hard work. They deserve to be taught by faculty who embody high academic and personal standards. In a time such as ours, in which the very concept of 'truth' is often bracketed by relativism, battered with cynicism and reduced by manipulation and 'spin,' our students must know that when they enter our classrooms, they occupy sacred territory where truth is always pursued on a foundation of ethics, honor, and integrity," he added.

"Far from those who have said this case represents a 'chilling' of academic freedom, I believe it forms an important annunciation of academic freedom, which time and practice have shown must be rooted in academic integrity to prevail," Peterson said.

During the more than two years in the investigative process, Churchill had the opportunity to present his case in writing, in person, with his attorney and with his own witnesses, the university said.

"The university has an obligation to ensure its faculty's work is above reproach," said Brown. "Academic freedom requires academic integrity, responsibility and accountability."

After the board's decision was announced, Churchill's supporters met him with T-shirts, signs and banging drums.

But he still has many detractors.

"Academic freedom goes hand-in-hand with freedom of speech. Even the most controversial and unpopular of views will inevitably find a safe haven in our colleges and universities. That doesn't mean that all ideas are equal in force or that inflammatory ideas are beyond reproach. Nor does it excuse teachers or professors for uttering nonsense and calling it instruction," said Rep. Mark Udall.

Udall added that Churchill's actions went far beyond giving voice to reprehensible points of views and that his dismissal was about his academic conduct.

"It is a shame that Ward Churchill still tries to deny the disservice he has done to CU by claiming the University is interfering with his right to free speech. It is self-serving, dishonest, and quite frankly, deeply disappointing," Udall said. "I am grateful that this sad chapter in CU's history is closed so that we can better focus attention on the exceptional work being done at our world-class university."