WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), today released a new report revealing that President Donald Trump has violated or likely violated the First Amendment in 17 cases related to college campuses, according to federal courts.

“The Trump administration is moving this country very aggressively into an authoritarian society. Trump’s attempts to control what colleges can say is a direct attack on the First Amendment and the U.S. Constitution,” Sanders said. “That is not just Bernie Sanders talking. Courts across the country have warned about the Trump administration’s rising authoritarianism.”

Among the 17 cases the report examined:

• A Trump-appointed District Court judge in Maryland found that the Trump administration “initiated a sea change in how the Department of Education regulates educational practices and classroom conduct, causing millions of educators to reasonably fear that their lawful, and even beneficial, speech might cause them or their schools to be punished.”
• A District Court judge in California held “the Administration and its executive agencies are engaged in a concerted campaign to purge ‘woke,’ ‘left,’ and ‘socialist’ viewpoints from our country’s leading universities.”
• A District Court judge in Massachusetts noted that “core constitutional rights” are an “essential hedge against authoritarianism.” The judge warned, quoting George Washington, that “if freedom of speech is taken away, then ‘dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”

The report, Trump’s War on Free Speech, also finds:

• The administration has illegally cut nearly $3 billion to institutions of higher education. The Trump administration distributed nearly $3 billion less in his first nine months in office in 2025 than was distributed during same period in 2024, despite no change in funding levels from Congress.
• The administration has pushed out faculty and students. At least 50 university faculty and staff have resigned, been fired for their views or fled the U.S. since Trump was elected, according to public reports. At least 6,000 students have had their visas revoked, according to the U.S. State Department.
• The administration is preparing to further consolidate control over higher education by weaponizing the accreditation process — which determines whether students can use their federal student aid at colleges and universities. Since returning to office, Trump has taken steps to transform the traditionally nonpartisan accreditation process to control colleges’ curricula, administration, hiring and enrollment practices.

Sanders called on colleges and universities to stand up for the First Amendment.

“Colleges and universities must not relinquish their constitutional rights to Trump’s authoritarianism,” Sanders continued. “In America, the president should not get to decide what professors can teach, what research is conducted or who universities can enroll.”

Read the full report here.