Leaders and former leaders of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute have taken a break from intercollegiate studies to engage in some internecine fighting. According to The News Journal, a newspaper in Wilmington, Del., the tradition-minded think tank has sued three former senior officials and a donor who broke away from the Delaware-based institute in September to start their own academic center focused on teaching America’s founding principles.

According to the lawsuit, the three former officials, whom ISI fired shortly after they announced plans to break away, made off with some of ISI’s trade secrets. The proprietary information in question includes a national list of American professors “sympathetic to the group’s aims” and the institute’s contact list. The institute also says it wants to ensure that the donor, Jim Miller, honors a $1.5-million pledge.

Mr. Miller and P. Michael Ratliff, a former senior vice president at ISI, along with two other senior institute officials, split off this fall to form an independent entity called the Jack Miller Center. The center was formerly a division of the institute. According to the suit, Mr. Miller was unhappy with how much recognition he was getting at ISI, and decided to take his money, plus the center with his surname attached to it, elsewhere.

According to The News Journal, Mr. Ratliff said the suit’s claims are “unfounded” and “are entirely misrepresenting the facts.” —John Gravois