Amicus Brief in AAUP v. United States Department of Justice

NEW YORK — Last night, legal organizations across the ideological spectrum filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit supporting the American Association of University Professors’ (AAUP) lawsuit against the Trump administration’s unprecedented interference in university governance and academic freedom. The brief has been filed by five organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), the Cato Institute, the Rutherford Institute, and the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC). The organizations argue that the administration violated the First Amendment by coercing Columbia University to censor and reshape its teaching, research, and faculty hiring in line with the government’s preferred ideology. Using the threat of canceling hundreds of millions of dollars in federal research funding, federal officials pressured Columbia to restructure entire academic departments, impose speech restrictions on student protest, and adopt government-approved definitions of contested political terms. “This case isn’t about one university or one ideological disagreement," said Vera Eidelman, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “If the government can punish professors and universities for viewpoints it dislikes, then no field of research, no classroom discussion, and no scholar’s speech is safe. That is precisely what the First Amendment forbids.” By joining together, the amici underscore that this case is not about politics of “left vs. right,” but rather about preventing the government from weaponizing funding to impose ideological litmus tests on scholars. The coalition spans groups that disagree on many issues but share a commitment to defending constitutional protections against viewpoint discrimination. “The Trump administration’s use of federal funding to restrict Columbia University’s academic independence, scholarship, and discourse is a dangerous intrusion into academic freedom,” said Arthur Eisenberg, Executive Counsel at the NYCLU. “The First Amendment protects against this kind of abuse of power by prohibiting the government from using the power of the purse to dictate curriculums, research, or free inquiry. We urge the Court to move this case forward so the government is held accountable and the freedom once enjoyed by Columbia’s academic community is restored.” The brief stresses that retaliating against professors for their speech — whether directly or by coercing their universities into doing the silencing — violates core First Amendment protections. The organizations urge the Second Circuit to reverse the district court’s dismissal and allow the case to proceed, warning that upholding the administration’s actions would open the door to ideological bullying of universities and faculty across the country. The brief can be read here.