After a previous lawsuit was dismissed last month, two new challenges were filed Friday against Indiana’s recently enacted university “intellectual diversity” requirements.
Like before, the professor-led lawsuits — filed separately against Indiana and Purdue universities — allege the state policies are unconstitutionally vague and infringe upon faculty members’ free speech and academic freedom, violating the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana lodged the complaints on behalf of the professors. The group said it will likely move to consolidate the two cases, but that will ultimately be up to the court to decide.
“As we stated in our initial lawsuit in May, this law puts professors in an impossible situation. One of our plaintiffs has already been the subject of multiple student complaints under the new university policy, all of which were ultimately dismissed,” Stevie Pactor, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Indiana, said in a statement. “Professors should never be put in the position of choosing between their careers and their academic freedom.”