Conservative activist network subpoenas US professors, igniting free‑speech concerns

A coalition of right‑wing activist groups—including Accuracy in Media, the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project and the Metric Media network—has launched a coordinated campaign to obtain university teaching materials through thousands of Freedom of Information Act requests. Funded by dark‑money donors such as Donors Trust and the Charles Koch Foundation, the groups have filed more than 9,000 FOIA requests nationwide, often masking the effort as local news reporting.

The campaign has led to concrete employment consequences. Hidden‑camera videos produced by Accuracy in Media resulted in the dismissal of three university employees, and a secretly recorded lecture at Texas A&M caused senior lecturer Melissa McCoul, two staffers and the university president to lose their jobs after a student cited a Trump executive order on gender. McCoul has since sued for wrongful termination. Since 2000, nearly 1,700 scholars have faced sanctions over their speech, with roughly 300 terminated or forced to resign.

Critics argue the strategy is intimidation rather than transparency. Metric Media co‑founder Brian Timpone defended the tactics, saying, “Parents should know what they are paying professors to teach their children.” Retired Institute for Advanced Study professor Joan Scott warned of a “creeping right‑wing net” that chills academic expression.