University faculty members sued the Texas Tech University System in federal court on July 8, alleging that it has created an “extraordinary system of censorship” through restrictions on course content related to race and gender.
The Texas American Association of University Professors-American Federation of Teachers and the national American Association of University Professors brought the lawsuit against Texas Tech University System Chancellor Brandon Creighton and the university system’s Board of Regents. The faculty groups accused them of working to “obscure documented history, facts and theories related to certain perspectives on race, sexual orientation and gender identity.”
“Under this censorship regime, professors cannot teach Plato’s ‘Republic,’ the Pulitzer-Prize winning book ‘Between the World and Me,’ the fact that gay and bisexual men were persecuted in Nazi Germany, or the existence of health disparities in rural communities in Lubbock and border communities in El Paso,” according to the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. It went on to allege one professor was “barred from even using the word ‘systemic.'”
The complaint argued the alleged actions violate the First Amendment as well as the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process and equal protection clauses.
Erin Wilson, a spokesperson for Creighton’s office, said in a July 9 email to USA TODAY that the Texas Tech University System “is confident its policies are lawful, constitutionally sound and fully compliant with state and federal law.”
“Our commitment to academic integrity and the First Amendment rights of our students and faculty will not be distracted by lawsuits as we continue our mission to deliver rigorous academic programs, relevant coursework and groundbreaking research,” Wilson said.
USA TODAY reached out to the Board of Regents for comment.
Restrictions are ‘vague and contradictory,’ complaint says
The complaint centered on two alleged directives from Creighton related to course content surrounding race, gender and sexuality.
The first was issued on Dec. 1, 2025, according to the complaint, and imposed restrictions that included a prohibition on promoting the ideas that someone “by virtue of race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, consciously or unconsciously” and that there are more than two genders.
It also required faculty members to follow a review process if they believed any of their course materials touched on such topics.
The second directive came on April 9 and “established criteria to govern this review process at the discretion of the Board of Regents,” the complaint said.
Creighton’s guidelines are “vague and contradictory,” according to the complaint, which also said faculty members have begun to “immediately and constructively self-censor constitutionally protected speech about race, gender identity and sexual orientation.”
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has supported restrictions on teaching such topics. He said the state was “targeting professors who are more focused on pushing leftist ideologies rather than preparing students to lead our nation” in an October X post.
American Association of University Professors President Todd Wolfson called the alleged directives a “chilling, top-down attack on the freedom to teach designed to intimidate faculty into silence” in the organization’s July 8 news release.
Teresa Klein, president of the Texas American Association of University Professors-American Federation of Teachers, said the lawsuit demonstrates to faculty members “that we will do everything in our power to defend them from these dangerous policies.”
The faculty groups asked the court to declare the alleged directives unconstitutional for violating both the First and Fourteenth Amendments and to bar the defendants from enforcing them or “any other policy or practice with similar restrictions or prohibitions.”
BrieAnna Frank is a First Amendment reporter at USA TODAY. Reach her at bjfrank@usatoday.com.
USA TODAY’s coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Faculty sue over Texas’ restrictions on teaching race, gender