Then you don't actually have academic freedom.

If I don't like your research, but it's legally problematic to censor you because you've got tenure and a union, there are all sorts of angles I can exploit, professionally and socially, to chill you out and make you fully aware that I want that research dead. I can send that message without once touching your core position or your core research, and a smart academic will know my intent and goal and do the censorship on my behalf.  That's how chill effects work.

An administrator has a giant tool box full of tools to use to screw with your life. Only ONE of those tools is an official dismissal.  You restrict academic freedom to that one tool, or that one context, and you're leaving the entire rest of the toolbox in play. 

It's like people commenting on this story are naïve and think that everyone plays by the rules. Have none of you worked in a toxic environment where people actually work to get you gone? They are remarkably creative.