A federal judge blocked West Point from enforcing policies restricting civilian professors’ outside speech. U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel issued a preliminary injunction preventing the military academy from requiring civilian faculty to seek approval before participating in certain external engagements related to disciplinary expertise and from enforcing an informal “no outside opinions” rule during teaching. The ruling came in a First Amendment lawsuit by law professor Tim Bakken, who argued the policies would “control, chill and suppress” civilian faculty speech. The court said Bakken’s claims were “likely to succeed” on their merits and denied West Point’s motion to dismiss. The decision lands amid broader scrutiny of academic freedom at military academies and adds a new constraint on how institutional compliance frameworks can be applied to faculty participation in scholarly and public discourse.