How are Universities challenging the government's encroachment

David Pozen

Charles Keller Beekman Professor of Law
Columbia Law School

In conversation with:

Adam Kushner

The Morning Editor
The New York Times

The Trump administration claims it is investigating whether a raft of universities meet certain criteria to continue receiving federal funds. In the effort to combat antisemitism, government officials say, they want schools to change the way they operate -- confronting university administrators with a new challenge to their autonomy and self-governance. If universities don't comply, they may lose hundreds of millions in federal grants and maybe even their tax-exempt status. At the same time, state-level legislative efforts in Texas, Florida, and elsewhere are reshaping curricula. Some universities are challenging the administration in court. Others have signed a letter banding together with a defiant posture. Still others have assented to government requests.

During an in-depth conversation with The New York Times's Adam Kushner, legal scholar Professor David Pozen examines the legal claims underpinning the government's actions. He further evaluates the reactions of universities and offers his expert perspective on how these institutions can secure research and development funding while preserving their autonomy and upholding the constitutional rights of their community.

Time will be allocated for Q&A.

Co-sponsored by Yale Club of DC

David Pozen teaches and writes about constitutional law, information law, and nonprofit law, among other topics.

Pozen’s body of work includes dozens of articles, essays, and book chapters, as well as The Constitution of the War on Drugs (Oxford, 2024). Pozen has also edited two volumes for Columbia University Press, on transparency (2018) and free speech (2020), and been a semi-regular contributor to the Balkinization and Lawfare blogs. He has been the keynote speaker at numerous academic conferences, in the United States and abroad, and his scholarship has been discussed in outlets including the New York Times, New Yorker, Washington Post, Harper’s, Politico, American Scholar, and NPR.

In 2019, the American Law Institute named Pozen the recipient of its Early Career Scholars Medal, which is awarded every other year to “one or two outstanding early-career law professors whose work is relevant to public policy and has the potential to influence improvements in the law.” In 2017, Pozen became the inaugural visiting scholar at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.

From 2010 to 2012, Pozen served as special advisor to Harold Hongju Koh, legal adviser at the U.S. Department of State. Previously, Pozen was a law clerk for Justice John Paul Stevens on the U.S. Supreme Court and for Judge Merrick Garland on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and was a special assistant to Senator Ted Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Adam Kushner is the Editor of The Morning at The New York Times. Before that, Kushner was the education editor of The Washington Post, running the paper’s coverage of national education trends, universities, and the school districts in DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Previously, he was editor of the Post’s Outlook section, its home for ideas, essays, arguments, and book criticism — coverage that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2019 under his leadership. Before that, he was the editor of National Journal magazine, a senior editor for foreign affairs at Newsweek and managing editor at The New Republic. He grew up in New Orleans and lives with his wife and three sons in Bethesda. Adam has a BA in the study of antiquity from Columbia University.