By Nate Raymond
May 26 (Reuters) – A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the U.S. Military Academy at West Point from enforcing a policy adopted under President Donald Trump that restricted faculty speech, in a case that raised broader questions about free expression in military education.
U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel in White Plains, New York issued a preliminary injunction sought by Tim Bakken, a civilian law professor who in a class-action lawsuit filed in September accused the elite Army institution of censoring speech in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.
The case centers on a February 2025 policy requiring faculty to obtain prior approval before speaking publicly or publishing in an official capacity, and an August directive barring them from sharing personal opinions in the classroom.
Seibel blocked West Point from enforcing the February 2025 policy against any of its civilian faculty, and barred it from restricting Bakken from expressing his opinions to his students on the subjects he teaches.
“West Point cadets are already, by definition, smart, tough and patriotic,” Seibel wrote. “They are not snowflakes who will somehow be harmed by learning about controversial issues or competing viewpoints.”
She said Bakken had presented evidence that the policy shift was intended to compel faculty to align their speech with Trump’s views and comply with an executive order he signed in January 2025.
The order barred West Point and other U.S. military academies from promoting certain “un-American, divisive, discriminatory, radical, extremist, and irrational theories.”
It also prohibited teaching that America’s founding documents are racist or sexist and required academies to emphasize that the United States and its founding documents remain a force for good.
Seibel called the restrictions a “broad and standardless” intrusion on the speech of civilian faculty members that likely violated the First Amendment’s free speech protections.
The judge, who was appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, said restricting classroom discussion was also “nonsensical if the mission is to prepare the nation’s future military officers.”
West Point in a statement said it will work with U.S. Department of Justice attorneys on next steps.
Bakken’s lawyers, Jonathan Goldman and Stephen Bergstein, in a joint statement hailed the ruling as a “ringing endorsement of freedom of speech in the academy.”
“The First Amendment protects all of us, inside and outside West Point,” they said.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
