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2d ago

Professors' Union Sues Texas Tech Over Limits on Teaching Race, Gender and Sexuality

The federal complaint asks a judge to block two chancellor memoranda that faculty say censor classroom speech and leave professors unsure what they may teach.

Texas Tech University System Chancellor Brandon Creighton walks back to his seat during a board of regents meeting at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Dallas on Feb. 26, 2026.
Texas Techn University System Chancellor Brandon Creighton limited how professors could teach about race and gender at the system's five universities. On Wednesday, a national professors union sued the system for the limits.
Students and faculty held a mock-funeral outside of the Texas Tech Board of Regents meeting on May 7 in protest of recent policy changes.
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Overview

  • A national professors' union and its Texas chapter filed the lawsuit in federal court on Wednesday, July 8, 2026, asking the Western District of Texas to declare Chancellor Brandon Creighton's memoranda unconstitutional and to stop their enforcement.
  • The complaint says two memoranda issued in December and April forced mandatory course-content reviews, required faculty to disclose materials, and paused flagged instruction pending regents’ rulings.
  • Plaintiffs allege the directives discriminate on viewpoint, are unconstitutionally vague under the Fourteenth Amendment, and have disproportionately targeted teaching about Black history and LGBTQ topics.
  • Attorneys say administrators used an automated tool to scan syllabi and reading lists, which led to removal or suspension of assigned materials such as Plato’s Republic and constrained medical and law instruction tied to race and gender.
  • Creighton defends the rules as steps to make curricula 'rigorous' and workforce-focused while critics warn the case could set a wider precedent for state control over university teaching and academic freedom in Texas and beyond.