A noble cause—outlawing antisemitism—produces one of the worst pieces of legislation ever written.
The House of Representatives passed a major antisemitism bill on Wednesday, which would crack down on antisemitism on college campuses as protests rage nationwide.
The bill, introduced by New York Republican Rep. Mike Lawler passed in a bipartisan 320-91 vote, per The Hill, and will now go to the Senate. The legislation was opposed by 21 Republicans, and 70 Democrats.
The legislation seeks to make the Department of Education adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism when enforcing the 1964 Civil Rights Act on college campuses.
The bipartisan legislation is called the “Antisemitism Awareness Act.” But there are a lot of problems with the law as written, including the fact that the definition is not even included in legislation, but outsourced to an international body that has no legal standing to tell us what we can or cannot say. Matt Walsh makes this point in his blog post on Thursday.
In addition, the legislation just passed by the House with the majority of Republican and Democrats supporting it, says that the examples given by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance are also to be considered part of this law.
Do you know what one of the “examples” of antisemitism is given by the IHRA?
Personally, I believe that all of us, Jew and Gentile, killed Jesus, but this is insane. If I were to stand up in a church and read John 19:7, I could conceivably be arrested under this “hate speech” law.
The Jewish leaders insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”
I detest antisemitism, but this bill is unconstitutional on its face. It also directly attacks the First Amendment which protects all speech, including speech we find detestable.
Not only that, but what if the IHRA decides to change their definition of antisemitism? Or to add examples that target the Christian church even more directly? Worse, does the U.S. law automatically get updated with the revised definition and examples? Is it a “living and breathing” bill that can change based on the whims of people in other countries, including Israel?
We should all oppose this bill, like Thomas Massie, who posted a thread worth reading on X.
We are living in very dangerous times, my friends, because we have a bunch of morons running the country who have no understanding of the First Amendment or of the constitution they swore to protect, defend, and uphold.
Have a good weekend.