A Lamentable Anniversary

On June 6, 2025, Texas State University placed Assistant Professor of Philosophy Dr. Idris Robinson on administrative leave because of complaints the university received about remarks that he made a year earlier and a thousand miles from campus.

One year later, we take a moment to recollect how the university’s action against Dr. Robinson was but the first in a series of staggering attacks on free thought and faculty rights across higher education in Texas.

Perhaps next year we will be able to report that a countervailing series of victories in favor of free thought and faculty rights were inaugurated three weeks ago when a federal district judge ruled that “Dr. Robinson showed that a First Amendment violation occurred” when his remarks a thousand miles from campus “motivated [the university’s] decision not to renew his contract.”

The opinion also rebukes the university for arguing that the non-renewal of Dr. Robinson’s contract was equivalent to a “trivial matter” that should not concern a federal court.

In the first place, the judge argues that “refusal to renew is materially indistinguishable with a refusal to hire or a discharge.” And in the second place, even if there is a distinction to be drawn between nonrenewal, refusal to hire, or discharge, “a refusal to renew is ‘sufficiently punitive’ . . . to constitute an adverse employment action.”

To mark the lamentable anniversary of June 6, 2025, we archive below the federal court order of May 13, 2026, with hopes that an unforeseen restoration of Constitutional rights and academic freedom lies before us in the year ahead.