'Striking': Law expert floored by Trump's audacity to put new threat in writing

The White House is asking nine top universities to sign a pledge that would set several requirements for them if they intend to keep their federal funding, The New York Times reported Thursday. According to one constitutional law expert, they're not only illegal, but she's shocked the administration was willing to put in writing.

Among the demands in the list are that colleges must "commit to strict definitions of gender." Others include that schools must "prohibit policies that would punish conservative ideas. Provide free tuition to students studying math, biology, or other 'hard sciences' if endowments exceed $2 million. Prohibit employees from expressing political views on behalf of their employer, unless the matter affects the school."

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) wrote on X in all capital letters, "IF ANY CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY SIGNS THIS RADICAL AGREEMENT, THEY'LL LOSE BILLIONS IN STATE FUNDING — INCLUDING CAL GRANTS — INSTANTLY. CALIFORNIA WILL NOT BANKROLL SCHOOLS THAT SELL OUT THEIR STUDENTS, PROFESSORS, RESEARCHERS, AND SURRENDER ACADEMIC FREEDOM."

Speaking to MSNBC on Thursday, University of Michigan School of Law Professor Leah Litman said that the way it is written has "blatant constitutional violations," but they tried to make them "sound kind of reasonable, at least on the surface."

Litman, who hosts a podcast that deals specifically with the U.S. Supreme Court, said, "I think it probably is a list of demands, to me, it reads basically, like the equivalent of the FCC commissioner telling Disney, 'We can do this the hard way, or we can do this the easy way,' when he was trying to get them to get Jimmy kimmel off the air."

Litman said that the list of demands is really about getting people to stop expressing their views and producing research and teaching classes that align with Trump's beliefs or political vision.

"Wrapped in this are blatant First Amendment violations. It's just core viewpoint discrimination. One of the core principles is that the government can't discriminate based on viewpoints," said Litman. "Here, they straight up wrote in the document that they aren't going to give schools money if they belittle conservatives, and then they promise not to withhold federal money if the schools agree to basically cease functioning as research institutions with independent views that produce independent knowledge."

What she found the most "striking," however, is "that they were willing to actually put this in writing."