Former West Point professor sues over climate teaching directive

A former tenured professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point has filed a federal lawsuit alleging the academy ordered faculty to stop teaching about human-caused climate change and then pushed him out after he objected. The lawsuit, filed on August 24, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, names the academy and several current and former officials as defendants.

Adam Kalkstein, a geography and climate science professor who taught at West Point for more than 17 years, claims the directive came during a September 2025 meeting of the geography program. According to the lawsuit, faculty were told to remove all mention of human causes of climate change from their courses. They were also warned that if they went to the press or to politicians, the entire department would likely be dissolved.

Kalkstein, who had given up his tenured position in the fall of 2025 due to a reduction in force and was teaching as a term employee, initially complied with the new rules. However, he continued to raise objections internally, including with the academy's inspector general and legal office. In a letter dated September 22, 2025, addressed to Defense...