Two prominent faculty organizations filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday, seeking to block the Texas Tech University System from enforcing strict new regulations on classroom discussions regarding race, gender, and sexual orientation.

The legal action represents a major pushback against mounting restrictions within Texas higher education. The dispute centers on two directives issued during the past academic year by Texas Tech Chancellor Brandon Creighton.

The Directives Sparking the Legal Battle

The restrictions dictate significant changes to curriculum and degree offerings across the system’s five institutions, which serve roughly 64,000 students. The specific policies under fire include:

• The December Memo: Prohibits classroom content that describes any race or sex as “inherently superior” and bans faculty from teaching that more than two sexes exist.
• The April Memo: Command universities to dismantle any academic degree programs heavily “centered on” gender identity or sexual orientation.

The national American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and its Texas chapter filed the suit, naming Chancellor Creighton—a former Republican state lawmaker—and the system’s nine-member Board of Regents as defendants. System representatives have not yet responded to requests for comment.

“This case presents an extraordinary system of censorship in higher education, in which professors in the Texas Tech University System are prohibited from teaching the most basic scholarship…” the lawsuit states.

Impact on History and Medical Curriculums

According to the legal filing, the mandates have already altered course content. In one cited instance, a law professor was barred from teaching specific racial context surrounding Dred Scott v. Sandford, the historic Supreme Court ruling that denied citizenship to Black Americans.

Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that medical faculty received instructions to expunge curriculum details concerning the treatment of racial minorities and transgender patients. The specific professors affected remain anonymous in the documents.

Claims of Constitutional Violations and Vague Language

The faculty groups argue that the system’s policies breach the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause. They contend that the directives use language so ambiguous that educators cannot determine what is legally permissible, resulting in a severe chilling effect on academic speech. The lawsuit further alleges intentional discrimination, asserting that the rules block any substantive analysis of how past and present racial discrimination impacts Black Texans.

Chancellor Creighton has defended the measures as necessary steps to align with federal and state laws, board policies, and administrative directives. However, Texas lacks any state law explicitly banning public universities from discussing or teaching race, gender identity, or sexual orientation.

Instead, Creighton linked the review to Senate Bill 37—a piece of legislation he authored prior to becoming chancellor. The law grants regents expanded oversight to ensure graduation requirements remain “foundational” and geared toward workforce preparation.

Concerns Over Career Readiness

Educators warn that suppressing these topics will ultimately disadvantage students entering the modern workforce.

“Telling professors they can’t acknowledge race or gender doesn’t make either disappear, it just makes students less prepared to engage with the real world after graduation,” said TJ Geiger, vice president of the Texas Tech AAUP chapter, during a Wednesday press conference.

Attorneys representing the faculty hope a favorable ruling will establish a legal precedent capable of halting similar policy shifts at neighboring institutions, such as the Texas A&M University System. Antonio Ingram, senior counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund—which is providing legal representation for the plaintiffs—characterized the restrictions as some of the most severe forms of academic censorship currently seen in the United States.