ACLU sues Purdue University over intellectual diversity law

Two professors from Purdue University Fort Wayne, a public university in Indiana, filed a lawsuit on May 7 against the Trustees of Purdue University. 

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the professors by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Indiana, alleges that an Indiana state law that requires professors to promote intellectual diversity in order to acquire or maintain tenure is unconstitutional. 

[RELATED: Indiana governor signs law to protect intellectual diversity at public universities]

The legislation, SB 202, is set to take effect on July 1, and states that “each board of trustees of an institution shall establish a policy that provides that a faculty member may not be granted tenure or a promotion by the institution if . . . the faculty member” is “unlikely to foster a culture of free inquiry, free expression, and intellectual diversity within the institution.” 

The law also denies tenure or promotion if a faculty member is “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 if the faculty member is “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.”

The lawsuit alleges that SB 202 “violates both the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.” It also claims, regarding the law’s requirement to present students with “scholarly works from a variety of political or ideological frameworks,” that “[t]he plaintiffs have no idea what this means and cannot discern what they are required to do or refrain from doing to avoid running afoul of the Act.”

On May 3, the ACLU of Indiana also sued Indiana University, alleging that the institution “violated the First Amendment rights of three plaintiffs facing a one-year ban from campus for their participation in political protests on the IU-Bloomington campus.”

[RELATED: Indiana Senate passes bill restricting tenure for profs who push political views on students, punishing students for disruptive protests]

On Aug. 8, 2023, the ACLU also sued the State of Idaho over a law that bars public college and university professors from promoting abortion in their official capacities. 

Campus Reform has reached out to Purdue University Fort Wayne and the ACLU of Indiana for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.