West Point violating First Amendment with professor crackdown: Lawsuit

[rangerrebew]

West Point violating First Amendment with professor crackdown: Lawsuit
By Larry Neumeister, The Associated Press
 Sep 22, 2025, 01:04 PM
 
A West Point professor has filed a lawsuit against the school, arguing it violates the First Amendment by banning professors' opinions in the classroom. Here, West Point cadets walk on campus in 2014. (Mel Evans/AP)
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.

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-army/2025/09/22/west-point-violating-first-amendment-with-professor-crackdown-lawsuit/
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.”

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-army/2025/09/22/west-point-violating-first-amendment-with-professor-crackdown-lawsuit/

[rangerrebew]

The good professor doesn't seem to get the idea the strength of the military is in unity, not divisiveness.  That goes back to the Continental Army when Benedict Arnold, Washington's top general, practiced free speech.  He had to get out of Dodge or Washington would have executed him.

[Free Vulcan]

I didn't know you were allowed to have opinions in the military, just follow orders and policy.

[DefiantMassRINO]

The military is not subject to the First Amendment.

... Theirs not to make reply,
   Theirs not to reason why,
   Theirs but to do and die. ... - The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

[mountaineer]

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

This doesn't seem right. 

[rangerrebew]

This doesn't seem right. 

No, it seems left.