To the editor:
We are very grateful to John Wilson for his engagement with our book in “Book Review: Campus Speech and Academic Freedom” (Feb. 2, 2026). But we think it is important to correct the record regarding his characterization of our position on the meaning and scope of academic freedom.
Mr. Wilson claims that our view is that “professors who mention their personal political views in class or in their research are automatically bad teachers and bad scholars.” This seriously misstates the position we take in the book.
In fact, we have an extensive discussion of how it is not possible to expect faculty members in professional settings to refrain from taking political positions. We note that in 2003, the University of California, to its credit, abandoned its longstanding requirement that faculty members be “neutral” and “dispassionate” when exercising academic freedom.
We argue that “faculty members could hold strong viewpoints and yet act in accordance with the highest professional standards.” We state emphatically that “it is not possible to make faculty experts refrain from articulating any political viewpoint” while adding that “it is possible to require that they limit the viewpoints expressed in classes to those that are academically justifiable and germane, and to create a space in class where other defensible positions can be expressed.”
We acknowledge that this “requires difficult judgments about when opinion shades into unethical political indoctrination”—which is why we then go through several case studies to elucidate those judgments.
Mr. Wilson’s view is that “professors who fail to do their jobs and teach their politics instead of the subject of their classes can still be punished—but only for failing to do their jobs, and not for the mere mention of politics.” We agree.
We appreciate the opportunity to correct the record and look forward to Mr. Wilson’s ongoing engagement with other aspects of the book’s arguments.
Erwin Chemerinsky is the dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley and Howard Gillman is the chancellor at the University of California, Irvine.
