The University of Missouri, on behalf of St. Louis Public Radio, is making an unprecedented legal claim of sovereign immunity in the defamation lawsuit filed against it by former general manager Tim Eby. Eby maintains he was defamed by stories quoting station employees accusing him of upholding “white supremacy.” The university’s legal filings describe the station as “an arm of the state exercising exclusively governmental functions” and conclude it should receive immunity from Eby’s suit. Eby’s lawsuit is against the Board of Curators of the University of Missouri, who hold the license for St. Louis Public Radio. The legal defense of sovereign immunity originates with the university lawyers. The legal filings do not cite a case where a public broadcasting network affiliated with a state has won a claim to sovereign immunity in a defamation case.