ACLU attorney: recent state laws and federal pressure threaten academic freedom at U.S. universities

An ACLU attorney said Wednesday that recent state laws and federal enforcement actions are eroding free-speech protections and academic freedom at public and private universities across the United States, and cited local Indiana incidents and ongoing litigation as examples.

The speaker, identified in the event introduction as an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, told an audience at Indiana University–Bloomington that courts have long recognized broad First Amendment protections on campus and for faculty, and that current state and federal measures risk undoing that legal firewall. "If it's protected, we defend it," he said of the ACLU's approach to defending faculty and students regardless of politics.

The attorney reviewed key Supreme Court precedents that courts rely on in campus speech disputes, including Sweezy v. New Hampshire (1957), Keyishian v. Board of Regents (1967), Healy v. James (1972) and Papish v. Board of Curators of the University of Missouri (1973). He said those cases establish that universities are "not enclaves immune from the sweep of the First Amendment" and…