You Can't Teach That!: The Battle over University Classrooms

by Keith E. Whittington

Who controls what is taught in American universities – professors or politicians?

The answer is far from clear but suddenly urgent. Unprecedented efforts are now underway to restrict what ideas can be promoted and discussed in university classrooms. Professors at public universities have long assumed that their freedom to teach is unassailable and that there were firm constitutional protections shielding them from political interventions. Those assumptions might always have been more hopeful than sound. A battle over the control of the university classroom is now brewing, and the courts will be called upon to establish clearer guidelines as to what – if any – limits legislatures might have in dictating what is taught in public universities.

In this path-breaking book, Keith Whittington argues that the First Amendment imposes meaningful limits on how government officials can restrict the ideas discussed on university campuses. In clear and accessible prose, he illuminates the legal status of academic freedom in the United States and shows how existing constitutional doctrine can be deployed to protect unbridled free inquiry.

176 pages, Paperback

Published May 28, 2024

Reviews

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish this book talked more about recent issues (Salaita, e.g.) with university freedom of speech cases and firings, and less about cases from decades ago and high school, for a book supposedly focused on university classrooms. The focus here is very much on the law, not so much on what's actually happening/has happened. It's not terrible, just not what I hoped it would be. I found the background info somewhat helpful. Great cover.

[Bill Sleeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Conservative legal scholar Keith Whittington has written a first-rate study of the importance of First Amendment protections for "academic speech/academic freedom." Beginning with Florida's recent efforts to prevent Critical Race Theory from being taught in public schools (which it was not, as Whittington so deftly points out) the author covers both the historic understanding of freedom to teach and 20th century, and more recent, efforts by state and local government entities to limit what can be taught. As one might imagine important Supreme Court decisions abound. Whittington highlights how today's attacks against CRT are remarkably similar to earlier efforts to prevent teaching about Socialism or Marxism. While researched and published before the current President turned his jaundiced eye on the likes of Harvard, Columbia and NYU this work offers valuable insights on how to respond to those attacks and the Trump's horribly misguided efforts to silence DEI and affirmative action efforts. A timely and valuable work.