West Point Civilian Professors - Academic Speech Censorship
After Trumpâs order, West Point curbed faculty speech. One professor â citing federal employees' oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution âsaid no.
NYACK, N.Y. â The longest-serving law professor at West Point rose to declare the schoolâs new rules unconstitutional. Within moments, a uniformed colonel stood to challenge him.
Tim Bakken, speaking to dozens of colleagues at a faculty meeting, argued that none of them should be forced to seek approval before publishing papers or giving speeches, as a policy unveiled that day would require. âThis violates the First Amendment,â he said, predicting an end to West Pointâs professed tolerance for opposing views.
Col. E. John Gregory, according to Bakken and three other people in attendance that day, didnât want to hear it. âStop talking,â Gregory, a deputy department head, said in a raised voice, âand sit down.â
Bakken, a 68-year-old who had never served in the military, did not sit down. He reminded the colonel that he had sworn an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution when he accepted his teaching job. âItâs like how military officers must not follow illegal orders ââ he began to say.
âWeâre a military institution,â Gregory interrupted, according to Bakken and the other attendees. âWe follow orders.â
President Donald Trump assumed power for the second time with an ambitious agenda toreshape norms and policies across governmentand throughout the private sector. His administration has moved swiftly toundo diversity initiativesthat proliferated in prior years,reshapehow U.S. history is taught in museums and parks, and assert a greater federal role in how universitieshireandmanage their funding.
To the presidentâs supporters, these efforts represent an overdue reset for liberal policies that had veered out of control. To many other Americans, they amount to ideological, and sometimes unconstitutional, overreach. In little more than 18 months, the administration has drawn a surge of lawsuits alleging violations of civil liberties or other essential freedoms, a Washington Post analysis of hundreds of thousands of court records found.
One of those was filed by Bakken.
His confrontation with the colonel that day in March 2025 brought the clash to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the emerald-green-and-granite campus on the Hudson River that trains the leaders of tomorrowâs Army. Since World War II, West Point had fostered academic openness, advancing the view that dissenting opinions are crucial in forming sound military judgments. But Trump and his top lieutenants, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, argue that West Point must prize patriotic obedience to authority above all else.
Seven days into his second presidency, Trumpissued an executive orderforbidding military colleges like West Point from âpromoting, advancing, or otherwise inculcatingâ ideas that his administration deemed âun-American, divisive, discriminatory, radical, extremist, and irrational.â It also required teaching that âAmerica and its founding documents remain the most powerful force for good in human history.â Within weeks, West Pointâs dean introduced a revised âacademic engagementâ policy, stipulating that the schoolâs nearly 700 professors â roughly a third of whom are civilians â must seek approval from their department head before they could deliver a speech, publish a paper or even speak on a podcast.
Bakken had never needed such approval before, he said. One of the first civilian professors hired at West Point, he had taught criminal and constitutional law there since 2000.
Nonmilitary faculty were meant to improve West Pointâs intellectual rigor and provide an outside perspective. Many uniformed colleagues never fully embraced their presence, however. Bakken, whose colleagues and students described him as a principled but brusque contrarian with a penchant for criticism, had often felt isolated.
Now, listening to the colonelâs words about âfollowing orders,â Bakken felt alone in the room once again.
He had long argued that a military culture of unquestioning obedience, coupled with an aversion to criticism and a sense of superiority, had caused the U.S. to lose every war it fought since 1945. âInside America, the last seventy-five years of military intervention have unleashed a flood of incompetence, hubris, and denial,â he wrote in a 2020 book, âThe Cost of Loyalty.â âI have been living at the headwaters.â
West Point officials hadnât liked that book, or much of Bakkenâs criticism. But they had never tried to silence him, he said â until Trumpâs second presidency, when West Point revised its faculty speech rules.
At his Senate confirmation hearing, Hegseth, a former Army major and weekend co-host of âFox & Friends,â said West Point shouldnât employ civilian professors, calling them âleft-wingâ and âwoke.â In office, he latertold cadetsthat the academy had âhired professors who advocated for anti-American ideologies right here in these halls. But no more.â
West Pointâs new policy came as Bakken prepared a new book that, like his first, criticized the academy and the military. But he was unwilling to seek permission to publish it,not from West Point, and not from Hegsethâs Pentagon.
In September, he sued West Point in federal court. The âintent and effectâ of his employerâs new policy, he contended, âis to chill and suppress speech and censor viewpoints that might be contrary to the viewsâ of West Point, the Army, the Defense Department, Hegseth and Trump.
A spokesperson for West Point declined to answer a list of questions, writing in an email that, âas a matter of policy, we do not comment on ongoing litigation.â Various West Point employees declined or did not respond to requests for comment.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell likewise declined to comment, citing Bakkenâs ongoing lawsuit. But he wrote in a statement that Hegseth âcompletely supportsâ Trumpâs executive order. Referring to Bakken, Parnell added: âWe are not concerned by the half-baked thoughts of a disgruntled individual.â
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly did not directly answer questions about speech by Bakken or other professors at West Point, writing in an email that âindividuals who refuse to follow the sacred chain-of-command ⊠threaten the lives of our warfighters. Such reckless and dangerous actions will not be tolerated.â
Although Bakken filed his lawsuit on behalf of civilian faculty, he saw it as protecting the rights of all professors. But they didnât seem to agree. After the suit, many stopped speaking to him, he said. His three closest colleagues confided that theyâd like to help but their wives wouldnât allow it. One of his oldest friends, who had started at West Point the same day he did, asked him to reconsider.
âThis policy is good for us,â Bakken recalled him saying. âIt will prevent us from saying things that get us in trouble.â
FULL STORY AT GIFT LINK: https://wapo.st/4h1Lxlu
This is Hannah Natanson with The Washington Post. It's been very hard this year to do my job. It means more than I can say to be back reporting and writing again. I am pursuing stories this year examining how the second Trump administration is affecting Americans' essential freedoms, civil liberties and rights guaranteed in the nation's founding documents. I want to hear from anyone who has a story to share about how their civil liberties may have been affected by recent federal, state or local actions. Please feel free to reach out to me at my email [email redacted] or via the encrypted messaging app Signal at HannahNatanson.2026. I will use best secure sourcing practices. Thank you for considering â and for reading.
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