NEW YORK — The U.S. Military Academy at West Point is banning opinions by professors in the classroom and some books and courses in a crackdown that violates the First Amendment, a law professor at the military school said in a lawsuit Monday seeking class action status.
Tim Bakken filed the lawsuit in Manhattan federal court and named the school and its leaders as defendants. He said he wants to protect free speech and the right to academic freedom at an institution where he has flourished despite his public criticisms of the academy and the U.S. military.
Bakken also noted in the lawsuit that he has a contract with a publisher for a book that is critical of some aspects of West Point and doesn’t want to seek approval from the school’s leadership prior to its publication because “it is very likely such approval will be withheld.”
The lawsuit seeks class action status for West Point’s civilian faculty members, believed to be more than 100 individuals, and a court order to stop restrictions on free speech, along with unspecified damages and legal fees.
Bakken’s lawsuit said the school began to scrutinize faculty speech after a January executive order from President Donald Trump to “carefully review the leadership, curriculum and instructors of the United States Service Academies and other defense academic institutions.”
In February, the military academy at West Point issued a policy preventing faculty members from using the schools’ “affiliation or branding” in connection with any public comments or writings without the academy’s approval, the lawsuit said. The lawsuit said the policy was “to control, chill and suppress faculty speech.”
The lawsuit said the academy in the spring withdrew books from its library, removed words and phrases from faculty members’ syllabi, eliminated courses and majors and threatened or punished faculty members for teaching, speaking and writing without prior approval from the school.
During the summer, the academy removed information about faculty members’ published books, articles, essays and scholarship entries from all faculty members’ webpages on the school’s website, the lawsuit said. It also directed instructors not to express opinions in the classroom, it said.
“As a professor of law, Plaintiff’s inability to express opinions on the subject matter being taught is stifling and disruptive to the educational process,” the lawsuit said. It added that he no longer would be able to express to students whether a major or dissenting opinion is persuasive and why.
The military academy did not immediately return a request for comment.
Bakken, a civilian professor of law in the academy’s Department of Law and Philosophy for the last 25 years, is the longest-serving law professor in West Point’s history and has written extensively, including books, articles and essays, along with appearances on podcasts, radio and television, the lawsuit said.
According to the lawsuit, he traveled with U.S. soldiers to Kabul in 2007 during the war in Afghanistan and created the Department of Law at the National Military Academy of Afghanistan.
He seeks class action status for West Point’s faculty and a court order to stop restrictions on free speech.
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