Inside Higher Education reports that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has just released a report criticizing the Bush administration’s efforts to limit academic freedom around the country. The article notes,

“Science Under Siege” says that the administration has used the attacks of September 11 to undermine the rights of researchers. “Spurred by misguided and often disingenuous security concerns, the Bush administration has sought to impose growing restrictions on the free flow of scientific information, unreasonable barriers to the use of scientific materials, and increased monitoring of and restrictions on foreign university students,” the report says.

The report says that there is no debate about the fact that there is some information that is so potentially dangerous that it shouldn’t be widely circulated, and that there are some terrorists who need to be kept out of the United States. But the report says that the Bush administration has gone way beyond reasonable measures. . . .

While much of the report focused on issues related to post-9/11 policies, the ACLU study also says that the Bush administration has “stacked” scientific advisory committees, granted the White House Office of Management and Budget too much control over science policy, and appointed political ideologues to key science positions.

The American Association of University Professors endorsed the ACLU report. Mark Smith, director of government relations for the AAUP, said at the press conference that the president’s science policies “are bad for science, bad for freedom and fundamentally flawed.” The AAUP’s Committee on Government Relations this month issued its own statement on science policy that was also critical of the administration.

Many academics have just sat back with either indifference or helplessness and watched how the Bush administration has consistently sought to impose its ideological agenda on the academic and scientific community. It’s time that we fight back.