Second academic-freedom suit filed against academy this year
The lawsuit was filed in federal court for the Southern District of New York by Kalkstein’s attorney, Michael Sussman. It alleges that West Point terminated the civilian geography professor after a six-month sequence of events that began when Reeves ordered Kalkstein to stop teaching about human contributions to climate change in September 2025.
At a meeting two months later, Kalkstein compared the order to “trying to teach the law without being able to even mention the constitution,” according to the complaint. Reeves responded by telling Kalkstein that Donald Trump was commander in chief and set the agenda for West Point, then “storming out” of the room, the lawsuit alleges. Reeves retired in April after a 30-year military career and is now president of the University of Wyoming’s board of trustees.
The complaint says Kalkstein first learned his position could be in jeopardy in May 2025, when academy leaders announced plans to reduce civilian staffing while opening a new humanities center requiring new geography teachers. Offered the option to stay on as a “term employee,” Kalkstein gave up tenure and entitlement to a large severance package — in part, Stars and Stripes reported, because he feared colleagues would have to absorb his classes if he left.
Kalkstein’s case is the second academic-freedom lawsuit filed against West Point this year. Tim Bakken, the academy’s longest-serving law professor, brought a separate action after resisting a Trump administration policy that ordered civilian faculty to seek approval before publishing papers or giving speeches, the Washington Post reported in July. According to Bakken’s complaint, Col. John Gregory ordered him to “stop talking and sit down” during a meeting of dozens of faculty members and declared, “We’re a military institution. We follow orders.”
Bakken’s lawyers obtained a preliminary injunction against the policy. The U.S. Military Academy — West Point’s formal name — dropped its challenge to that injunction earlier this month, and the parties have agreed “in principle” to work toward a permanent solution, according to military.com.
Sussman told The New York Times that his client is a conservative Republican who believes military students need to understand the causes of the climate crisis as a matter of national security. “He is loyal to the cadets and the academy,” Sussman said. “And to his perspective, edicts that he can’t say what’s true in a classroom is beyond his tolerance and totally counterproductive.” In further remarks to Stars and Stripes, Sussman said Kalkstein’s stance was not ideological: “There are certainly people who, anything Donald Trump does, they want to complain about it and scream and yell about it. He’s not that guy.”
Kalkstein’s complaint alleges that his firing violated his First Amendment rights to free speech. In a statement to The Guardian, the academy said it was “aware of the allegations and take[s] such matters seriously” but declined to comment further, citing pending litigation. The Guardian reported that it had reached out to the White House for comment but had not received a response by publication.
Trump has alternately called the climate emergency “a hoax” or “a scam” and has at other points conceded it exists while arguing that climate scientists are politically motivated and that the climate “will change back.”
Since taking office for a second term in 2025, Trump has pursued multiple cultural changes at U.S. military institutions. In April 2025, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, to purge books identified as promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, leading to the removal of almost 400 titles before the Pentagon reversed course a month later and the books were returned.