A new federal lawsuit filed by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) challenges Texas Tech University system policies that, faculty allege, restrict what professors can teach about race, sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation. The AAUP lawsuit targets two memoranda from Chancellor Brandon Creighton, contending they created a sweeping curricular-review process with an “extraordinary system of censorship” across the system’s five universities. The complaint says the memoranda review thousands of courses—citing internal emails, course-review outcomes, and faculty testimony—and that the approvals produced delays, inconsistent rulings, and prompted self-censorship due to unclear boundaries on permitted instruction. Texas Tech officials said the system is “confident” the policies are lawful and compliant, emphasizing First Amendment rights and academic integrity. For higher education leaders, the central issue is compliance risk and faculty governance: institutions across states will be watching how courts handle the interaction between state curriculum limitations and academic freedom obligations, especially where course review processes become formalized and enforced through institutional procedures.