ACLU of Texas, Professors Sue Texas A&M System Over Censorship Policy, Detail Violations of Academic Freedom

CONTACT:
Kristi Gross, ACLU of Texas, [email protected]
Sam LaFrance, ACLU, [email protected]

HOUSTON – A group of professors filed suit Monday night challenging the Texas A&M University System’s new censorship policy that prohibits faculty from discussing certain topics and viewpoints related to race, sexual orientation, and gender.

The policy, which was implemented in late 2025 and requires extensive, bureaucratic syllabi review, has resulted in prohibitions on everything from the Oscar-winning film “Moonlight” to Plato’s writings on gender. The faculty impacted by this policy work throughout the Texas A&M System, which includes 12 universities, and across departments, from the Bush School of Government and Public Service to the English department.

The suit was filed on behalf of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and Professors Leonard Bright, Vanita Reddy, Landon Sadler, and Aaron George in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. The complaint argues that the censorship policy governing Texas A&M is unconstitutionally vague and violates the First Amendment by discriminating against certain viewpoints.

“By embarking on a campaign of censorship, Texas A&M has abdicated its responsibility to support students’ right to learn and faculty’s right to teach,” said Todd Wolfson (he/him), president of the AAUP. “A university that censors Plato — as well as other significant texts — abandons its obligation to truth, free inquiry, and the public trust.”

“My ethics course — the only one of its kind available to graduate students — was canceled for noncompliance with a draconian censorship policy,” said Leonard Bright (he/him), lead plaintiff, professor of Public Service and Administration, and president of the Texas A&M College Station chapter of the AAUP. “This policy has impacted my ability to do my job, my students’ ability to learn, and my colleagues’ ability to teach without fear of reprisal. The chilling effect of this policy is vast and immeasurable, and it poisons the very soul of what a university should be: a place where ideas are free to roam, and debate is uninhibited by the political winds.”

The censorship policy was implemented in November 2025 amid a sustained campaign to limit speech on certain topics in the college classroom. As a result of the policy change, numerous classes have been cancelled or forced to remove content. The women’s and gender studies program has been shuttered altogether because the program could not be reconciled with the new censorship policy.

Cancelled courses include: Religions of the World; Introduction to Race and Ethnicity; Ethics in Public Policy; and a course focused on LGBTQ+ literature. Professors have been forced to edit their syllabi to comply with the policy, removing works like Plato’s “Myth of Androgyne;” Kevin Kruse’s “White Flight;” and even the Academy Award-winning film “Moonlight.” One history professor was allowed to teach Phyllis Schlafly’s campaign against the Equal Rights Amendment, but not about how the Fourteenth Amendment expanded to protect women and LGBTQ+ people.

“This policy directly harms Black, Brown, LGBTQIA+, and all other Texans who have historically been discriminated against by subjecting discussion of their rights, identities, and indeed very existence to heavy-handed censorship.” said Chloe Kempf (she/her), staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas. “What’s more, it undermines all Texans’ First Amendment rights. If public officials can abuse their power to ban these topics and perspectives today, there’s nothing stopping them from targeting other subjects and points of view, including your own, down the line.”

“The First Amendment plainly prohibits this egregious attack on academic freedom at a public university,” said Emerson Sykes (he/him), senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “This broad policy and the university’s opaque enforcement process makes it impossible to teach or to learn freely and endangers course content about everything from the history of slavery to Shakespeare to the hard sciences. Universities are sites of inquiry, debate, and discovery — banning entire categories of ideas is a betrayal of both their mission and the First Amendment.”

“We’re proud to represent these professors challenging a censorship policy that betrays Texas A&M’s established legacy as an institution that supports free and open inquiry,” said Jamie A. Aycock (he/him), attorney at Yetter Coleman LLP. “At stake in this lawsuit is the bedrock First Amendment principle that America is strengthened by and depends upon open public debate, even on the most controversial topics. Nowhere is this more important than in our public academic institutions, which are charged with developing and teaching our future leaders to think critically and broadly about pressing issues affecting society.”

Access the complaint here: https://www.aclutx.org/app/uploads/2026/08/2026.08.03-Dkt.-1-TAMU-Complaint.pdf