Four professors and a national faculty group asked a federal judge Monday to block the Texas A&M University System鈥檚 restrictions on teaching about race, gender and sexuality and to reinstate courses canceled under the policy.
The university system bars professors from 鈥渁dvocating鈥� race or gender ideology or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity. It requires presidential approval to address those subjects in certain courses and, according to the lawsuit, prohibits them in core courses.
The lawsuit asks the judge to rescind instructions requiring professors to remove particular readings or subjects and declare the policy unconstitutional. They allege the restrictions violate the professors鈥� First Amendment rights and are so vague that faculty cannot determine what they may teach without risking discipline.
The American Association of University Professors brought the lawsuit alongside four professors: Texas A&M professors Leonard Bright, Vanita Reddy and Landon Sadler and Tarleton State University professor Aaron George. They are represented by the ACLU of Texas, the national ACLU and the Houston law firm Yetter Coleman. They sued the system鈥檚 regents in a federal court in Houston.
Chris Bryan, a spokesperson for the Texas A&M University System, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
It is the second Texas university system to face a lawsuit in recent weeks over academic restrictions. AAUP and one of its Texas chapters are suing as well.
The Texas A&M system implemented the policy after months of upheaval in College Station that began after a student secretly recorded her confrontation with a professor over a lesson on gender identity last summer. A Republican state lawmaker then posted the video on social media that fall, fueling conservative outrage over what the university was teaching.
Then-President Mark A. Welsh III, who initially defended the professor, . He resigned days later amid Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick鈥檚 criticism of his handling of the controversy. Chancellor Glenn Hegar subsequently ordered a systemwide review of courses.
Texas A&M regents first in November and revised it in December. The regents defined 鈥渞ace ideology鈥� as concepts that shame a race or ethnicity, assign people guilt based on their ancestry or promote racial activism instead of academic instruction.
They defined 鈥済ender ideology鈥� as the idea that a person鈥檚 gender identity could replace biological sex and that biological sex has less value or legitimacy.
They did not define what advocacy was.
Regent Sam Torn said at the time that the board left it to university presidents to determine the difference between teaching and advocacy.
鈥淲hat we鈥檙e doing is pretty simple,鈥� Torn said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not as complex. We鈥檙e simply making sure that we do educate, and we鈥檙e simply making sure that we teach what the course syllabus specifies that we teach.鈥�
Bright, president of Texas A&M鈥檚 AAUP chapter, had his graduate seminar, ethics in public policy, in January, three days after the spring semester started, because he could not identify every class meeting in which sexual orientation might arise during discussions. Bright told administrators that he did not advocate for a particular position.
The policy allows professors to teach the restricted subjects in only if they establish a 鈥渘ecessary educational purpose鈥� and receive the university president鈥檚 written approval. The lawsuit argues that the policy does not define that standard and gives administrators sweeping discretion to determine which courses qualify.
After the policy took effect, professors submitted syllabi for review. Some were told to change their courses or teach something else. In one example, administrators told a professor to remove readings from Plato鈥檚 鈥淪ymposium鈥� from a philosophy course to continue teaching it as a core course, or instead teach a different philosophy course that would not fulfill a core requirement.
Texas A&M officials have said the university still teaches Plato and have emphasized that only six of more than 5,400 courses reviewed were canceled in the spring, but the lawsuit argues that the cancellations alone understate the policy鈥檚 effects.
The lawsuit alleges that Texas A&M canceled an LGBTQ literature course that Reddy and Sadler were scheduled to teach this fall and required Sadler to remove the Academy Award-winning film 鈥淢oonlight鈥� and a poem titled 鈥淭rans-Generation鈥� from another course. Administrators allowed him to show 鈥淏arbie,鈥� the complaint says.
At Tarleton State, administrators ordered George to remove 鈥淭he Gay Manifesto鈥� and Kevin Kruse鈥檚 book 鈥淲hite Flight鈥� from a history course, while not flagging a reading by conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly opposing equal rights for women, according to the lawsuit. The professors and AAUP argue that the contrast shows the policy allows certain viewpoints while censoring others.
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