Balancing Free Speech and Anti-Discrimination in Higher Education

Our guests today signed onto a statement by a group of 18 law professors who opposed the Trump administration’s funding threats at Columbia on free speech and academic freedom grounds. 

Since then, Northwestern, Cornell, Princeton, Harvard, and nearly 60 other colleges and universities are under investigation with their funding hanging in the balance, allegedly for violations of civil rights law. 

To help us understand the funding threats, Harvard’s recent lawsuit against the federal government, and where universities go from here are:

- David Rabban — distinguished teaching professor at The University of Texas at Austin School of Law

- Erwin Chemerinsky — distinguished professor of law and dean at UC Berkeley Law

Timestamps: 

00:00 Intro

02:50 Govt’s approach with Harvard and Columbia

05:39 Title VI violations

11:30 Anti-Semitism on campuses

23:02 Viewpoint diversity in higher education

27:12 Affirmative action and the Supreme Court

35:52 Title IX under the Obama and Biden administrations

42:32 Bob Jones University and tax-exempt status

45:53 Future of federal funding in higher education

54:08 Outro

Read the transcript.

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Show notes:

• Academic freedom: from professional norm to first amendment right David Rabban (2024)

• Worse than nothing: the dangerous fallacy of originalism Erwin Chemerinsky (2022)

• “A statement from constitutional law scholars on Columbia” The New York Review (2025)

• Sweezy v. New Hampshire (1957)

• Title VI of the Civil Rights Act (1967)

• Federal government letter to Harvard (2025)

• “The promise of American higher education” Alan Garber (2025)

• Harvard's lawsuit (complaint) (2025)

• “Columbia agrees to Trump’s demands after federal funds are stripped” The New York Times (2025)

• “Sustaining Columbia’s vital mission” Claire Shipman (2025)

• Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College (2023)

• “What is Title IX? Its history & implications” FIRE (2025)

• Bridges v. Wixon (1945)