The American Attack on Academic Freedom in Comparative Perspective

Abstract Tom Ginsburg, Professor of International Law at the University of Chicago, situates the Trump administration’s 2025 attacks on universities within a broader global pattern of democratic backsliding. Comparative indicators show a worldwide erosion of academic freedom under anti-pluralist movements, and the United States mirrors this trend as federal officials, state legislatures, and mobilized social groups intensify pressure on higher education. Academic freedom in the United States rests on relatively shallow institutional foundations—professional norms, AAUP principles, and uneven state-level protections rather than explicit constitutional guarantees—leaving universities vulnerable to political intervention. The contemporary assaults on higher education, in the United States and abroad, fall into several recurrent modes, including individual sanctions, politically driven restructuring and funding controls, and bottom-up pressures from student activists and outside civil-society organizations. These techniques have been deployed in countries such as India, Hungary, and Poland and are now appearing in the American context, often amplified by novel tools such as social-media campaigns that undermine trust within the classroom. Against this backdrop, professional norms of disciplinary expertise serve as a crucial resource for resisting governmental coercion seeking to restrict academic inquiry.