The Editorial Board
Wall Street Journal
Excerpt: Justice Clarence Thomas filed a peppy dissent, but the Supreme Court was otherwise silent and cryptic on Monday in declining to hear a challenge to Indiana University’s “bias response team.” As a result, the circuit courts will stay split, since lower judges are divided on whether such campus bodies chill student expression. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals said no in Speech First v. Whitten.
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For the good of the Nation, university leadership must seize this occasion to drive essential reforms—a process some began by adopting positions of institutional neutrality and improving policies related to campus protests. Before the end of 2026, I call on every postsecondary institution to describe to the American public your commitments to rigorous teaching, pathbreaking research, and national service—commitments that make our universities a bedrock institution of the American republic.
Now the administration is back with Compact 2.0, formally titled "A National Call to Action to University Presidents and Governing Boards." It includes some rhetorical flourishes intended to make it seem less threatening to teaching, learning and research. But make no mistake: It once again asks colleges and universities to align themselves with a far-right agenda at the expense of students’ education and the public’s well-being.