Texas officials just crossed a line with a professor — and the First Amendment fight is about to get ugly
Free speech, with strings attached.
An assistant professor at Texas State University is taking the school to federal court, asking for an injunction to keep his job after he was put on administrative leave last year following complaints about a pro-Palestinian talk he gave off-campus. Idris Robinson, an assistant professor of philosophy, claims university officials violated his free speech rights and retaliated against him. He’s trying to stop the school from terminating his contract, set to expire in May.
According to NBC News, Robinson’s lawsuit details how he was abruptly placed on administrative leave on June 6, 2025. This move came just one day after online activists started demanding his termination because of a speech he gave as a private citizen in the summer of 2024.
The lawsuit argues that Robinson has already suffered irreparable harm to his First Amendment rights under the United States Constitution. Without an injunction, he’ll lose his job on May 31, 2026, which would cause further irreparable harm to him and his young family, the filing states. A spokesperson for the university mentioned they can’t comment on pending litigation.
Robinson’s case is a stark reminder of how academics are under constant scrutiny
The whole situation seems to have kicked off after Robinson spoke at the Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair in Asheville, North Carolina, back in June 2024. His talk, titled “Strategic Lessons from the Palestinian Resistance,” delved into Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel and Israel’s military actions in Gaza. He wasn’t speaking on behalf of the university; he was there as a private citizen.
Things got a bit heated during his talk when a skirmish broke out between four audience members and three pro-Israel activists, including a 79-year-old Holocaust survivor, who were livestreaming the event. One victim reported having her phone knocked out of her hand right before the altercation escalated.
Local news reports from the time indicated that the three individuals filming Robinson’s talk were Jewish and sustained minor injuries. Three attendees involved in the incident later pleaded guilty to simple assault, and a fourth pleaded guilty to resisting a public officer. They all received supervised probation for one year and 30 hours of community service, with orders not to contact the victims.
Interestingly, Robinson himself was never identified as a witness or suspect in the 44-page police report related to the incident. However, he says he was hit with a barrage of online harassment and calls to the university demanding his firing shortly after the event.
Despite having “glowing” performance reviews in recent years, Robinson was placed on administrative leave from Texas State University in 2025. An email from university officials to Robinson stated that this action was taken “following the receipt and internal assessment of multiple complaints and allegations regarding an incident that occurred in the summer of 2024,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit suggests that the university worked itself “into a moral panic” over Robinson’s presentation. It points out that no evidence indicates anyone at Texas State University had even heard of the public talk when it happened. Instead, the university only became aware of it on June 5, 2025, when online activists suddenly began pushing for his dismissal.
The Instagram post mentioned in Robinson’s lawsuit accused him of glorifying terrorism and praising Hamas, even listing the university’s phone number and encouraging people to call for his firing. Just a month later, Robinson received notice that his contract wouldn’t be renewed after May 2026.
This isn’t an isolated incident either. Robinson is one of several professors who have faced disciplinary action in recent years over pro-Palestinian comments. Last year, academic groups even sued the Trump administration for arresting students and faculty members linked to pro-Palestinian protests.
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