New Yale Law School Center Seeks to Safeguard and Promote Academic Freedom and Free Speech

A new Yale Law School center aims to become a leading hub for academic freedom and free speech and safeguard these values for future generations. 

The Center for Academic Freedom and Free Speech (CAFFS) launched at the start of the 2024–2025 academic year. It is directed by David Boies Professor of Law Keith E. Whittington, a distinguished academic who recently joined Yale Law School from Princeton University.

At a moment when universities across the United States are grappling with difficult questions surrounding academic freedom and free speech on campus, the work of the center will provide thoughtful scholarly commentary on questions at the core of academic life. CAFFS also seeks to raise public awareness of issues surrounding academic and free speech and generate important discussion to guide policymakers and higher education leaders in how best to protect the values of universities.

“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to guide this new Center at the Law School,” Whittington said. “The issues that the Center will tackle are in the headlines every day, and they are vital to the functioning of universities and ultimately to American democracy. There is important intellectual and practical work to be done in understanding and defending these critical principles, and I look forward to trying to build bridges as we get that work done. I’m excited to help the Law School play an important role in leading these critical debates.”

Whittington is a renowned scholar of academic freedom and free speech and has written extensively on both topics. His recent books include You Can’t Teach That! The Battle Over University Classrooms (Polity, 2024) and Speak Freely: Why Universities Must Defend Free Speech (Princeton University Press, 2018). He is Founding Chair of the Academic Freedom Alliance’s Academic Committee, Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, a National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement Fellow, and host of The Academic Freedom Podcast. 

“Keith Whittington is a brilliant scholar and a widely admired leader on these issues. I am incredibly proud that he will continue his important work on academic freedom and free speech at the Law School,” said Dean Heather K. Gerken. “This vital new center positions Yale at the forefront of critical debates facing universities today.”

The center is generously supported by the Stanton Foundation, an organization created by Frank Stanton. Stanton served as president of CBS from 1946 through 1971, and following his retirement from CBS, as chairman of the American Red Cross, chairman of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Visiting Committee, trustee of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Stanford, California, Harvard Overseer, trustee of the Museum of Broadcasting, and chairman of the RAND Corporation. During his lifetime, Stanton was praised for his passionate and courageous commitment to a free press. 

“The Stanton Foundation is pleased to provide funding to support the establishment of the Yale Law School Center for Academic Freedom and Free Speech. Frank Stanton was a fierce believer in the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech. Today that guarantee is being threatened on academic campuses across the country. The Yale Law School Center for Academic Freedom and Free Speech will be a platform for raising public awareness of academic freedom and free speech issues — issues that Frank Stanton championed his entire career,” said Liz Allison, co-director of the Stanton Foundation.

“We are grateful to the Stanton Foundation for their support of this critical work that will enrich the intellectual life of our community,” said Gerken.

With a focus on rigorous research, scholarship, and discourse, CAFFS is well-positioned to become a leading voice in this critical area of inquiry. Workshops and public events at the Law School will feature scholars, university leaders, advocates, and policymakers. Further programming will provide training and resources on how to engage in civil discourse, promote diversity of thought, and challenge one’s own preconceptions.

Prior to coming to Yale Law School, Whittington spent most of his career at Princeton University, where he served as the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Politics from 2006 to 2024. He has been a John M. Olin Foundation Faculty Fellow, an American Council of Learned Societies Junior Faculty Fellow, and a Visiting Scholar at the Social Philosophy and Policy Center. A member of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences, Whittington served on the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Reason, and Lawfare.