A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the U.S. Military Academy at West Point from requiring civilian faculty to get advance approval before speaking publicly and from restricting those professors from sharing personal views in class.

U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel called the academy’s rules a “blunt force instrument” and said they were not preventing “any real harm.” She wrote that the faculty members targeted by the policies are not “snowflakes” who would be harmed by exposure to controversial ideas or competing viewpoints, and said they would not be weakened in defending the country if classroom discussions were open and robust. The ruling also denied the government’s bid to throw out the lawsuit and put in place a preliminary injunction against the speech policies.

The case was brought in September by law professor Tim Bakken, who said he had already started pulling back in class because of the restrictions. He said he actively declined to answer certain student questions and was unsure how he would promote his forthcoming book. Bakken told he could once again “search for truth, and not be subject to the censorship of the military and the government.” He now plans to seek a permanent injunction against the policies.

The lawsuit says the restrictions grew out of a January 2025 Trump executive order that barred the military from promoting “un-American, divisive, discriminatory, radical, extremist and irrational theories.” According to the suit, West Point began applying new limits the following month, requiring civilian professors to get approval before mentioning their military affiliation in journal articles, conference presentations, media interviews, podcasts, opinion editorials, blog posts and social media posts.

The filing also describes a broader crackdown at the academy, saying West Point officials and academics removed books from its library, deleted words from course syllabi, eliminated courses and majors, and took the publications tab off a faculty website. One colonel allegedly told Bakken the steps were meant to show the academy’s “radical compliance” with the White House campaign to root out “wokeness” in the military. The case centers on civilian faculty, not cadets, and the judge’s order leaves the academy unable to enforce the speech rules while the lawsuit moves forward.

West Point said, “In accordance with standing procedures, the Academy does not comment on current litigation.” It added that it will continue working with Department of Justice attorneys from the Southern District of New York on next steps.

For now, the ruling answers the central question in the case: West Point cannot use those policies to police civilian professors’ speech while the court considers whether they were lawful in the first place.