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Joey Fishkin @fishkin.bsky.social · 2d

@mit.edu has done an incredibly important service to the nation by being willing to be the first school to reject the administration's "compact."

President Kornbluth focuses—and she's right—on the principle that "scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone."

The document also includes principles with which we disagree, including those that would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution. And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.

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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 2d

MIT's response to the Trump admin's proposed "compact" is excellent and should be a model for other universities. orgchart.mit.edu/letters/rega...

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Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 4d

sign and share and join AAUP actionnetwork.org/petitions/tr...

Trump Higher Ed Compact 2025

We stand for education—for science, for students and for freedom—and against this backward, anti-American policy. We call on university leaders, faculty, staff and students to unite in rejecting the T...

actionnetwork.org

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Bonnie Honig @bonniehonig.bsky.social · 4d

Game theory, democratic theory, feminist theory, the civil rights movement, and more all agree on this: unite for independence or lose.
Great piece by Henry Farrell

Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 4d

Henry Farrell on the Trump admin’s proposed “compact” for universities, arguing that the rollout signals weakness, and that academics need to band together to reject this authoritarian attack on university independence and academic freedom.

Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/o...

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Evelyn Douek @evelyndouek.bsky.social · 5d

I wrote about an under-appreciated aspect of AAUP v. Rubio. It is the first case of the Trump Era to explicitly identify and reject the primary and most pernicious form of speech suppression employed by this Administration: Chill.

balkin.blogspot.com/2025/10/aaup...

Balkinization: AAUP v. Rubio and the Big Chill

A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics

balkin.blogspot.com

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Kirsten Weld @kirstenweld.bsky.social · 5d

“Figuring out what to do isn’t something any of us needs to do alone.”

My dear colleague Bernhard Nickel on the importance of solidarity and bravery (and AAUP!) in these grim times:

www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

I’m a Non-Citizen Professor. Here’s Why I Testified Against Trump. | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson

I am glad that I could re-learn this crucial lesson. Surround yourself with the right people. Stand in solidarity with them. Courses of action will make themselves known to you, along with the resourc...

www.thecrimson.com

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Kirsten Weld @kirstenweld.bsky.social · 7d

The last word on the poisoned chalice that is “the compact.” balkin.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...

Balkinization: The Art of Replacing the Law with the Deal

A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics

balkin.blogspot.com

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Joey Fishkin @fishkin.bsky.social · 9d

Ok I'm back and buckle up. This is going to be a 🧵.

First I want to make sure people understand the most important thing about the proposed "compact" (perhaps better described as a poisoned chalice):

The enforcement mechanism.

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Veena Dubal @veenadubal.bsky.social · 9d

“This is extortion, plain and simple.

It is not hyperbole to say that the future of higher education.. requires that every university reject it…The only solution is solidarity and collective action against this effort at federal control over higher education.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/o...

Opinion | Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Just Extortion

www.nytimes.com

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AFT @aft.org · 10d

"The federal government should not, under any circumstances, dictate who goes to college, what can be researched, or learned, and what can or can’t be the subject of critical academic inquiry." - AFT President @rweingarten.bsky.social & @aaup.org President @proftwolf.bsky.social

AAUP’s Wolfson and AFT’s Weingarten on Trump’s Loyalty Pledge for Colleges and Universities

WASHINGTON—AAUP President Todd Wolfson and AFT President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement slamming the Trump administration’s ideological litmus test for higher education. The two affil...

www.aft.org

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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 10d

Excellent that Judge Young's ruling has spurred journalists to dig into the trial transcripts. www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/...

U.S. used a transnational crime unit to secretly target campus protesters

A Tufts University graduate student was among those targeted after the Trump administration created a “tiger team” to investigate pro-Palestinian activists.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Genevieve Lakier @genevievelakier.bsky.social · 10d

The admin’s efforts to get universities to agree to a list of demands in exchange for preferential access to federal funding isn’t just “troubling” as Ted Mitchell, prez of the @aceducation.bsky.social says in this article; it looks blatantly unconstitutional.🧵
www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

www.wsj.com

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Paul Gowder @gowder.io · 10d

Ok so this is bad but for complicated reasons. Substantively, much of it is terrible explicitly: the anti-trans stuff, the requirement to use force on student protesters, cap on foreign students, content-based "screening" of foreign students, surveillance of foreign students. But some of (cont🧵)

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 10d

The Act of Capitulation that Trump is demanding that all colleges and universities are to sign surrenders authority over vast areas to Trump, as the Dear Leader. www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/u...

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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 10d

University presidents it’s time for a united front. I mean, it’s past time. What are you going to do.

From the NYT: “The White House on Wednesday sent letters to nine of the nation's top public and private universities, urging campus leaders to pledge support for President Trump's political agenda to help ensure access to federal research funds.”

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Veena Dubal @veenadubal.bsky.social · 11d

WE WON: "This case -– perhaps the most important ever to fall w/in..this district court squarely presents the issue whether non-citizens lawfully present here in US..have the same free speech rights as the rest of us. The Court answers this Constitutional question unequivocally “yes, they do.”"

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Niko Bowie @nikobowie.bsky.social · 12d

Our little AAUP chapter went 2/2 vs. Trump!

Noem and Rubio…misused the sweeping powers of their offices to target non-citizen pro-Palestinians for deportation primarily on account of their 1st Am protected political speech. They did so in order to strike fear into similarly situated non-citizens…

Findings of Fact & Conclusions of Law – #261 in American Association of University Professors v. Rubio (D. Mass., 1:25-cv-10685) – CourtListener.com

Judge William G. Young: ORDER entered. FINDINGS OF FACT AND RULINGS OF LAW, PURSUANT TO FED. R. CIV. P. 52(A)(Sonnenberg, Elizabeth) (Entered: 09/30/2025)

www.courtlistener.com

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Adam Klasfeld @klasfeldreports.com · 12d

Judge SLAMS the masking of federal agents in ruling finding Trump admin violated pro-Palestine protesters' rights:

"To us, masks are associated with cowardly desperados and the despised Ku Klux Klan."
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

And there’s the issue of masks. ... ICE goes masked for a single reason -- to terrorize Americans into quiescence. Small wonder ICE often seems to need our respected military to guard them as they go about implementing our immigration laws. It should be noted that our troops do not ordinarily wear masks. Can you imagine a masked marine? It is a matter of honor -- and honor still matters. To us, masks are associated with cowardly desperados and the despised Ku Klux Klan. In all our history we have never tolerated an armed masked secret police. Carrying on in this fashion, ICE brings indelible obloquy to this administration and everyone who works in it. “We can not escape history,” Lincoln rightly said. “[It] will light us down in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.”

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Charlotte Garden @charlottegarden.bsky.social · 12d

In this remarkable opinion, Judge Young concludes it violates the First Amendment for government to deport people because it dislikes their speech, and hopes to chill others from engaging in similar speech.

Charlotte Garden @charlottegarden.bsky.social · 12d

I'm skimming, but this paragraph stood out:

And there’s the issue of masks. This Court has listened carefully to the reasons given by Öztürk’s captors for masking- up and has heard the same reasons advanced by the defendant Todd Lyons, Acting Director of ICE. It rejects this testimony as disingenuous, squalid and dishonorable. ICE goes masked for a single reason -- to terrorize Americans into quiescence.

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Elizabeth N. Saunders @profsaunders.bsky.social · 12d

A good thread on the AAUP v. Rubio opinion and what it means, starring Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the nation's top diplomat, whom the judge resoundingly rebuked.

Joey Fishkin @fishkin.bsky.social · 12d

Honestly, this entire opinion is just jaw-dropping. The first postings I saw on Bluesky were about the first page, which is lovely in its own right and exemplifies one of the less-well-explored roles of a judge in a democracy: to explain what is going on legally to non-lawyers.

There's way more.

Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.bsky.social · 12d

reposting this (an excerpt from the district court's opinion in AAUP v. Rubio, a case about the government targeting noncitizen students and faculty for their pro-Palestine advocacy) w alt-text !

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

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Politico @politico.com · 12d

NEW: A federal judge excoriated Trump in a blistering decision calling the president's efforts to deport pro-Palestinian academics illegal.

Judge excoriates Trump in blistering decision calling efforts to deport pro-Palestinian academics illegal

The Reagan-appointed judge decried Trump’s “great threat to Americans’ freedom of speech.”

www.politico.com

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Reuters @reuters.com · 12d

Trump-backed targeting of pro-Palestinian campus activists for deportation is unlawful, US judge rules reut.rs/42ikvOq

Trump-backed targeting of pro-Palestinian campus activists for deportation is unlawful, US judge rules

A U.S. judge ruled on Tuesday that President Donald Trump's administration chilled free speech in violation of the U.S. Constitution by adopting a policy of revoking the visas of foreign students and faculty who engage in pro-Palestinian advocacy, and arresting, detaining and deporting them.

reut.rs

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Knight First Amendment Institute @knightcolumbia.org · 12d

⬇️ NEWS: “This is a historic ruling that should have immediate implications for the Trump administration’s policies. If the First Amendment means anything, it means the government can’t imprison people simply because it disagrees with their political views."
knightcolumbia.org/content/in-l...

In Landmark Ruling, Federal Court Says Trump Administration Violated First Amendment By Deporting Foreign Citizens for Pro-Palestinian Advocacy

knightcolumbia.org

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Ryan Enos @ryanenos.bsky.social · 12d

"ICE goes masked for a single reason -- to terrorize Americans into quiescence."

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AAUP @aaup.org · 12d

BREAKING: WE WON!!!
💥 💥 💥

Federal Judge William G. Young ruled today in our lawsuit against the Trump administration that the policy of arresting, detaining, & deporting noncitizen students & faculty members for their pro-Palestinian advocacy violates the 1st Amendment.

Full ruling here:

Findings of Fact & Conclusions of Law – #261 in American Association of University Professors v. Rubio (D. Mass., 1:25-cv-10685) – CourtListener.com

Judge William G. Young: ORDER entered. FINDINGS OF FACT AND RULINGS OF LAW, PURSUANT TO FED. R. CIV. P. 52(A)(Sonnenberg, Elizabeth) (Additional attachment(s) added on 9/30/2025: # 1 Main Document) (J...

www.courtlistener.com

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 12d

Judge Young: "This case ... squarely presents the issue whether non-citizens lawfully present here in United States actually have the same free speech rights as the rest of us. The Court answers this Constitutional question unequivocally 'yes, they do.' 'No law' means 'no law.'"

This case -– perhaps the most important ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court –- squarely presents the issue whether non-citizens lawfully present here in United States actually have the same free speech rights as the rest of us. The Court answers this Constitutional question unequivocally “yes, they do.” “No law” means “no law.” The First Amendment does not draw President Trump’s invidious distinction and it is not to be found in our history or jurisprudence. See Section III.A infra. No one’s freedom of speech is unlimited, of course, but these limits are the same for both citizens and non-citizens alike.

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