A professor at the U.S. Naval Academy is suing the Navy for restricting his First Amendment rights in the classroom and denying him funding.

Bruce Fleming, a professor who has taught English classes at the Naval Academy for 29 years, was reprimanded in 2013 for asking his class to discuss how school policies were unfairly biased against male students. At the time, the Naval Academy was under criticism for poorly handling sexual assault during a widely publicized case. 

Call it insensitivity or call it bad timing, the result for Fleming is the same. Two female students disagreed with Fleming’s argument in class and told sexual assault prevention officials about the discussion. Fleming then initiated conduct charges against the students for ratting him out. After conducting two investigations of the matter, the Navy eventually reprimanded Fleming and withheld a merit bonus from his salary.

Navy officials are standing by their decision to reprimand Fleming and deny that his academic freedom or First Amendment rights were violated. They found the fact that Fleming tried to punish the students in question after they reported him particularly damning.

“Academic freedom does not afford a faculty member the right to use the classroom as a bully pulpit for his or her own social, cultural, and political views unconnected to the course material,” wrote Col. Paul Montanus.