TaxProf blog has previously covered the threats to academic freedom (and here) in the current political climate. An article on this topic from December 2025 caught my attention.

Lisa Davis for Just Security notes that “[a]mong the most alarming targets are law school clinics—programs where students provide vital legal services to those who cannot afford them. In recent months, congressional investigations and political grandstanding have singled out public-interest clinics at major universities not for misconduct, but for the clients they serve.”

The article reviews a congressional investigation into Northwestern’s law clinics. “The catalyst [for the investigation] was a clinic’s representation of organizers of a pro-Palestinian protest that blocked traffic at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport in April 2024.” That was not the end of it.

“A few months later [a House committee] held a hearing questioning university leaders from Georgetown University, U.C. Berkeley, and the City University of New York (CUNY). During the hearing, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) questioned the employment of a professor who directs the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR) Clinic at CUNY School of Law, which provides three primary services free of charge: legal representation and consultation; know-your-rights workshops; and support for community organizing.” 

Davis’s conclusion: “Taken together, these actions reflect a broader strategy of intimidating clinics by targeting the very clients whose representation is most essential to the rule of law.”