The Right Should Cheer the End of Academic ‘Freedom’

Tenure is on life support, and so are academic freedom of speech and inquiry as we have known them since at least the mid-twentieth century. This turn of events is a conservative achievement, the dream-come-true of generations of right-wing would-be campus reformers. So why are so many on the right glum about the state of the university and hankering to restore a free-speech regime they spent decades targeting?

The latest sign of tenure’s demise comes from the University of Pennsylvania, where law professor Amy Wax faces a complaint from her dean,...