Did Congress just ban the Bible? No, despite the many hyperbolic claims floating around on social media after the House passed the so-called “Antisemitism Awareness Act” on Wednesday. But free speech watchdogs are nonetheless decrying the legislation for what it actually does — and rightly so.
The well-intentioned legislation is responding to a disturbing uptick in anti-Jewish sentiment on college campuses. It enshrines into law a specific definition of antisemitism and then permits the Department of Education to defund universities that allow this kind of speech to occur.
“We must give the Department of Education the tools to … hold college administrators accountable for refusing to address antisemitism on their campuses,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY).
The fundamental problem with this legislation is that its definition of “antisemitism” goes beyond explicit threats to Jews or incitement of violence, which the First Amendment doesn’t protect. Instead, it encompasses a wide swath of controversial but protected speech.
Oddly, the Antisemitism Awareness Act doesn’t actually contain the definition of antisemitism it is enshrining into federal law. Instead, it cites the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition, which we can then find explained at length on its website.
This definition labels the following things, among others, as antisemitism:
- “Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews”
- “Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany”
- “Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.”
- “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.”
- “Applying double standards by requiring of [Israel] a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation”
- “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis”
All of these things are controversial and understandably offensive to many Jewish Americans. However, every one of them is nonetheless protected under the First Amendment, which, remember, does not contain any exception for “hate speech.”
This all sets up a bizarre dichotomy in which public colleges could simultaneously be required to allow certain “antisemitic” speech by the First Amendment but also be defunded for allowing too much of that speech.
That doesn’t make any sense. More importantly, it incentivizes colleges to censor or restrict speech they are not allowed to censor under our Constitution, making the legislation itself incompatible with the First Amendment.
Hence why the nonpartisan Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression has condemned the legislation, saying it will “stifle free speech on campus and unconstitutionally restrict expression protected by the First Amendment.”
“If enacted, the Antisemitism Awareness Act will chill core political speech about the Israel/Palestine conflict on our nation’s campuses — the places where difficult conversations and debates are supposed to flourish,” FIRE concluded. (Disclaimer: I do a small amount of freelance work with FIRE.)
Even many influential pro-Israel, Jewish voices have spoken out against the bill.
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“We don’t protect American Jews from hate by turning on the values this great nation was founded on,” Newsweek opinion editor and author Batya Ungar-Sargon wrote. “We do so by embracing a country that has always protected us, by embracing what makes this country unique, a big part of which is the First Amendment!”
This is exactly right. The Antisemitism Awareness Act now heads to the Senate, which should consign it to the dustbin of history, where it belongs.
Brad Polumbo (@Brad_Polumbo) is an independent journalist, YouTuber, and co-founder of BASEDPolitics.
