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Free Speech

"Professors' Speech in Class Has Not Been Regulated; It Has Been Hired"

Eugene Volokh | 8.14.2026 1:54 PM

Yesterday's Seventh Circuit opinion in McDonald v. Trustees of Indiana Univ. held that public university professors lacked standing to challenge a state law that called for faculty members to be evaluated based in part on whether they were

(1) unlikely to foster a culture of free inquiry, free expression, and intellectual diversity within the institution;

(2) unlikely to expose students to scholarly works from a variety of political or ideological frameworks that may exist within and are applicable to the faculty member's academic discipline; or

(3) likely, while performing teaching duties within the scope of the faculty member's employment, to subject students to political or ideological views and opinions that are unrelated to the faculty member's academic discipline or assigned course of instruction….

Because the professors........

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