Texas Tech University System Chancellor Brandon Creighton and members of the Board of Regents being sued by the American Association of University Professors(AAUP) and Texas AAUP-AFT over two system memoranda.
According to release on the AAUP website, at the center of the case are two memoranda Chancellor Creighton issued to university presidents across the system, one in December 2025 and a second in April 2026, which they say set up a mandatory review process in which professors have to disclose whether their course materials touch on prohibited subject matter regarding race, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity, and if a course gets flagged, the instructor has to stop teaching that material until the board of regents rules on it. The policies apply across the five-institution system, which includes Texas Tech University, two health sciences centers, Angelo State University and Midwestern State University.
The new system-wide teaching rules and curriculum evaluations stem from sweeping governance legislation such as Texas Senate Bill 37. The legislation granted governor-appointed regents final say over core curriculum and removed final curriculum decisions from faculty senates. University systems defend these policies as necessary to prevent indoctrination and ensure academic integrity.
The AAUP states that this has led to banning some content in a philosophy course, prohibiting first year law students from receiving information about race related to Dred Scott v. Sandford, and barring students at Texas Tech’s health science center campuses from receiving medical education on treating racial and sexual minorities.
The lawsuit brings up three primary claims: First, it argues that the prohibitions in the memoranda amount to viewpoint discrimination that violates the First Amendment, since professors are barred from teaching certain ideas about race or gender but are free to teach other ideas about race and gender aligned with the memoranda’s preferences.
Second, it argues the policies in the memoranda are so vague that faculty can’t reasonably tell what’s allowed and what’s not, which violates due process under the Fourteenth Amendment.
And lastly, it argues the memoranda were created and implemented, at least in part, to target Black faculty, harming the students that they teach and suppressing instruction about Black people’s history and ongoing struggles with racial inequality.
The complaint further highlights Creighton’s decade in the Texas Senate pushing similar restrictions that repeatedly failed to pass into law before he became chancellor and instead imposed them on the Texas Tech community administratively.
The lawsuit asks the court to declare the memoranda unconstitutional and to block the university system from enforcing them.
The press release states that Texas Tech administrators reviewed almost 8,500 courses at Texas Tech University by early May 2026, and dozens of these courses were modified or had material removed, after department chairs, deans and provosts had already recommended that the material remain in place.
A Texas Tech System spokeswoman Erin Wilson in a statement rejected the lawsuit’s allegations and that the university’s “commitment to academic integrity and the First Amendment rights of our students will not be distracted by lawsuits as we continue to deliver rigorous academic programs, relevant coursework and groundbreaking research.” Wilson further stated that teaching about civil rights and historical events, including Nazi crimes, is permitted and instructors are not required to redact or remove works when sexual orientation or gender identity appears in adopted, industrystandard text or as an incidental reference.
Additionally, the board of regents also has not altered or rejected any course at Texas Tech’s health sciences centers.
Other higher institutions of higher learning in Texas are also facing similar changes in curriculums.
The A&M policy, which was approved before Creighton’s memos, says no system academic course may advocate “race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity” unless the course and relevant materials are approved in advance by the university president. It also says faculty may not teach material inconsistent with a course’s approved syllabus.
The University of Texas System Board of Regents passed rules restricting 'unnecessarily controversial' topics and mandating that instructors provide 'broad and balanced' coverage of unsettled issues. However, the policy does not explicitly define what qualifies as controversial, leading to widespread concern and legal challenges over academic freedom.