Brian Soucek
Professor at UC Davis Law School, where I teach con law & civil procedure and write about academic freedom & aesthetics. Author of The Opinionated University (U Chicago Press 2025) and Permitting Art (Cabinet).
law.ucdavis.edu/people/brian-soucek
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- Round 1 to Professor Kutz. Dean Chemerinsky, like Berkeley's Provost, simply ignores the relevant standard here (UC's APM-015), which, as Kutz quotes, requires a "significant intrusion of material unrelated to the course." www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...
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- It's official publication day for The Opinionated University: Academic Freedom, Diversity, and the Myth of Neutrality in American Higher Education @uchicagopress.bsky.social More info on the book here: lnkd.in/gAux5ktY Links in the comments to lots of places I'll soon be visiting.
- UC Davis (TODAY!) law.ucdavis.edu/events/opini... SF (1/15) www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2026-... DC (1/24) politics-prose.com/brian-soucek Cambridge (1/28) www.harvard.com/event/brian-... Princeton (1/29) www.labyrinthbooks.com/events/souce...
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- This panel was so great: me and three amazing deans who deal with the issues in my book on the ground every single day. They all had so much insight to share.
- Reposted by Brian SoucekTune in to the AALS Hot Topic Program’s panel “Author Meets Deans,” moderated by @ucdavis.bsky.social Law Dean Jessica Berg. It will focus on Professor @brsoucek.bsky.social’s book “The Opinionated University: Academic Freedom, Diversity, and the Myth of Neutrality in American Higher Education.”
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- I wish I had written this essay. I think it's perfect. www.chronicle.com/article/the-...
- Northwestern took the deal Trump has offered UCLA (but with a $75mil bribe, not $1.2 billion).
- Who is better than @uchicagopress.bsky.social, who sent me a beautifully wrapped first copy of my new book! Get your copy of The Opinionsted University here: press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
- Vicki Schultz and I wrote this in 2021. For some reason I've been thinking about it lately. www.nbcnews.com/think/opinio...
- Another strong post from UC's Academic Senate, this time on the personally identifiable information of students, staff, and faculty that UC is (or might be) turning over to the Trump administration.
- Well, it’s really “we agree to follow Pam Bondi’s view of the law”
- UVA agrees to "apply Civil Rights Law internally" according to the July 2025 Bondi memo, but only "to the extent consistent with relevant judicial decisions." That last part could matter, since the Bondi memo goes so far beyond what "relevant judicial decisions" hold. /1
- What can it possibly mean to apply an “institutional neutrality” policy to the role of “Vice Chancellor Provost of Climate Science, POLICY, and ACTION”? What, is he supposed to alternate days, recycling on one and burning coal the next? It’s incoherent. www.thedp.com/article/2025...
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- By requiring institutional neutrality except on issues that impact a university's mission, the Trump Compact for Higher Ed would put the Department of Justice in charge of deciding what every university's mission should be. rb.gy/7gjkp8
- Leading universities are closing departments, freezing graduate admissions, and shutting down museum shows for being “political”, but yes @nytimes.com please tell us about how Ilya Shapiro was almost forced to give his talk on a Wednesday rather than a Tuesday at NYU. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/o...
- Reposted by Brian SoucekThe Virginia Senate just told UVA it’s not getting state funding if it accepts the compact since UVA exists to serve Virginia, its residents, & their interests—not be a tool of the federal govt. Scoop from our student newspaper, who’ve been doing vital reporting www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...
- MIT refuses to accept White House terms for funding, other schools still mulling reut.rs/471tkNZ
- Strong statement today from UC's Academic Senate:
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- Unless I'm missing something, three people were fired @tamu.bsky.social because a class syllabus expanded on this effusive description in the @tamu.bsky.social course catalog: "Literature for Children. Representative writers, genres, texts and movements." (See www.coursicle.com/tamu/courses...).
- Proud to see @ucdavislaw.bsky.social making its values clear, even as the federal Solomon Amendment pressures us to allow military recruiters to violate our nondiscrimination policies. These kinds of statements were common (in fact, required by AALS) during Don't Ask Don't Tell. What's changed?
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- This:
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- Absolutely this. Nicholas Confessore clearly wasn't going to let the actual decision get in the way of his thesis. To be clear: the Skrmetti Court is 3-3-3 on the question of "extending new constitutional protections to trans people."
- Think the government shouldn't be defining what's art? Think the arts deserve government funding? Uh oh...you can't think both. My article with the amazing @jenniferlena.bsky.social is finally out, and it tells a 100-year history of tax law shaping what we see as art versus other forms of amusement.
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- Hey institutional neutrality folks: now that Trump’s military trans ban is back in effect, are you going to say anything about the fact that you’re violating your own nondiscrimination policies when you host military recruiters? Is that an attack on your mission?
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- Perfect timing for the new edition of the @aaup.bsky.social #Redbook!
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- Bay Area folks: come join me tomorrow night @kqednews.kqed.org ’s Night of Ideas at the SF Public Library, where I’ll be debating institutional neutrality with @stanfordlaw.bsky.social’s Diego Zambrano. 9pm, and it’s free! @ucdavislaw.bsky.social @ucdavis.bsky.social
- The latest evidence that attempts at appeasement won’t work: balkin.blogspot.com/2025/03/the-...
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- We've got a cover! My editor describes it as "juxtaposing the staid picture universities would like to present of themselves with the opinions they explicitly or implicitly express. It’s a bold cover for a bold book!" @ucdavislaw.bsky.social @uchicagopress.bsky.social
- This is also at least the fourth version of this take to appear in @nytimesoped.bsky.social this month.
- Judge Berzon here: 🔥
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- Institutional neutrality at work!
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- Coming up soon:
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- Excellent summary of what's wrong with the Dept of Ed's Dear Colleague rant against DEI: www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/o...
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- Agree. And this whole argument also applies to those who’ve been victim-blaming universities for Trump’s attacks, as if our diversity efforts are their cause, rather than a desire by this administration to eradicate all sources of independent expertise.
