Adam Kalkstein compared administration’s order to ‘trying to teach the law’ without mentioning ‘the constitution’
The only climate scientist teaching at West Point, the US army’s military academy, was fired after he resisted an order to stop teaching about the human causes of the climate emergency, a lawsuit claims.
Dr Adam Kalkstein, a civilian professor of geography at the New York institution, was terminated after the spring semester this year, six months after a testy meeting with Brig Gen Shane Reeves, then dean of West Point’s academic board, the court filing said.
According to Kalkstein, who taught army cadets there for 17 years, he told the dean at a November 2025 meeting that an order to cut from the curriculum content about the human causes of climate change was immoral and potentially illegal.
It “would be like trying to teach the law without being able to even mention the constitution,” he said.
Reeves responded by “storming out” of the meeting after telling Kalkstein that Donald Trump was commander in chief, and set the agenda for West Point, the lawsuit alleged.
The developments were reported on Wednesday by Stars and Stripes, and the New York Times.
Kalkstein’s lawsuit is the second legal action over the stifling of academic freedoms filed by an educator at West Point.
Tim Bakken, the academy’s longest-serving law professor, had a similarly fiery meeting with a uniformed colonel, John Gregory, last year after standing up to a new Trump administration policy ordering civilian colleagues to seek approval before publishing papers or giving speeches, the Washington Post reported in July.
According to Bakken’s lawsuit, Gregory ordered him to “stop talking and sit down” during a meeting of dozens of faculty members. “We’re a military institution. We follow orders,” Gregory is alleged to have said.
The US Military Academy, West Point’s formal name, dropped its challenge to a preliminary injunction against the policy obtained by Bakken’s lawyers this month, military.com reported, and the parties have agreed “in principle” to work towards a permanent solution.
Kalkstein’s attorney, Michael Sussman, told the Times that his client is a conservative Republican who believes military students need to know the truth about the causes of the climate crisis as a matter of national security.
“He is loyal to the cadets and the academy,” he said. “And to his perspective, edicts that he can’t say what’s true in a classroom is beyond his tolerance and totally counterproductive.”
In further comments to Stars and Stripes, Sussman said Kalkstein’s position was not ideological. “There are certainly people who, anything Donald Trump does, they want to complain about it and scream and yell about it. He’s not that guy,” Sussman said.
The lawsuit alleges that Kalkstein first became aware his position was under threat in May 2025, when West Point leaders announced plans to reduce civilian staffing levels, while at the same time opening a new humanities center requiring new geography teachers.
