Dear Colleagues,

an update on some of the actions being taken by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and other higher education organization in defense of higher education and academic freedom. AFT together with the American Associate of University Professors (AAUP) and others continue to push back on the Federal Administration’s efforts to impose their will on colleges and universities.

The latest success came yesterday when a federal court in Boston earlier this week ruled that the Trump administration violated the First Amendment in carrying out a policy of arresting, detaining, and deporting non-citizen students and faculty members for ideological reasons. 

This ruling came after a two week trial in July, American Association of University Professors v. Rubio  in a suit brought by  the AAUP, the Middle Eastern Studies Association at Harvard University, and several AAUP chapters together with the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.  This suit sought to block the Trump administration’s attempt to suppress speech (typically pro-Palestinian speech) that Trump opposed.

In Solidarity!