BY ERIC SMAW

Recently, the Florida state legislature passed House Bill 233, which requires the state Board of Education and Board of Governors to conduct an annual survey of students and professors at public colleges and universities to determine if they feel comfortable expressing their viewpoints in the classroom. State Rep. Spencer Roach, who sponsored the bill, is reported to have said that the surveys could uncover left-leaning biases and “provide some guidance to policymakers on how we can ensure our universities are marketplaces for ideas” (Orlando Sentinel April 20, 2021). Of course, the goals of ensuring that colleges and universities are marketplaces of ideas and that students are comfortable expressing themselves are worthy ones, but they cannot exist against the backdrop of the Black Scare—i.e. the belief that radical liberal professors are teaching students critical race theory, as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis put it, to make students hate themselves and their country—or a Blacklist, no more than academic free speech could exist against the backdrop of the Red Scare or the Red-Ucators list.

I suspect that all college and university professors recognize this as McCarthyism reincarnated. In the 1940s and 50s, Senator Joseph McCarthy engaged in similar efforts to uncover the “socialist” and “communist” teachings and activities of radical professors. Many college and university professors were accused and hauled before the House Committee on Un-American Activities to testify about their political beliefs, the books they owned, meetings they attended, and the activities of their associates and friends. In fact, nearly “20 percent of the witnesses called before congressional and state investigating committees were college teachers or graduate students” (No Ivory Tower, 4). As a result, Lloyd Barrenblatt, Vera Shlakmen, Herbert Phillips, Joe Butterworth, Ralph Gundlach, Melvin Rader, and many other college and university professors lost their jobs, were placed on the Red-Ucators list, and ostracized from the academic community.

Today, critical race theory is the new Black Scare, at least for Republicans. Republican-led state legislatures in Idaho, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Iowa, New Hampshire, Arizona, Florida, South Carolina, and many others have passed laws prohibiting public schools from teaching critical race theory and other materials which assert that “racism is embedded in American society and its legal systems in order to uphold the supremacy of white persons” (Florida Department of Education rule). These laws are aimed at K-12 education primarily but they have given jittery university administrators cause for canceling courses. For example, administrators at Oklahoma City Community College canceled a course on race and ethnicity after HB/SB 1775 was passed, arguing that “HB/SB 1774 essentially revokes any ability to teach critical race theory, including discussions of white privilege, from required courses in Oklahoma” and therefore “substantial changes to the curriculum for this class” are required (Washington Post May 29, 2021).

In my opinion, the Republican Party is ignoring the long jurisprudential history of the Supreme Court on the question of academic freedom, academic free speech, and academic association. For example, in the landmark case of Sweezy v. New Hampshire, 354 U.S. 234 (1957), the Supreme Court ruled that academic free speech is protected by the U.S. Constitution and that colleges and universities have the right to determine: (1) who may teach, (2) what may be taught, (3) how it shall be taught, and (4) who may be admitted to study at the university. On these grounds, the administrators at Oklahoma City Community College ought not to have canceled their courses on race and ethnicity. Similarly, in the landmark case of Keyishian v. Bd. of Regents, 385 U.S. 589 (1967), the Supreme Court ruled that loyalty oaths violate academic freedom and freedom of association. In addition, it is illegal to fire professors based on their political beliefs and associations. Conversely, it is illegal to hire professors based on their political beliefs and associations. For these reasons, I believe that Florida’s HB 233 law, which attempts to coerce loyalty to particular political beliefs through the Board of Education and Board of Governors annual survey on the political commitments of professors, will be ruled unconstitutional if it ever challenged in court.

Where do we go from here? First, the American Association of Universities Professors (AAUP) has been a staunch defender of the rights of college and university professors for decades. So, it is in the natural default position for disseminating information about what’s happening in states, organizing resistance, and motivating others to join in the fight against those who claim to support the core values of free speech and rational discourse, even as they seek to use the law to curtail them. Secondly, I would urge the AAUP to establish an online petition, ask every college student and professor in the country to sign it, and forward the petition to Congress demanding that they pass federal legislation reaffirming academic free speech and freedom of association on public college and university campuses. Third, I would urge the AAUP to collaborate with civil liberty organizations like the ACLU and challenge the laws mentioned above in court. For, as I have demonstrated above, the Supreme Court has a long history of ruling in favor of professors on the question of academic freedom.

Eric Smaw is a professor of philosophy at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, and an adjunct professor of clinical ethics at Florida State University, School of Medicine at the Orlando campus in Orlando, Florida.

NOTE FROM CONTRIBUTING EDITOR JENNIFER RUTH: The African American Policy Forum (AAPF) has established an open letter for faculty to sign to express their rejection of these bills and to defend academic freedom. Please find it here.