Hageman Votes in Defense of the First Amendment
Washington, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Harriet Hageman voted against a bill that was advertised as a response to Hamas-inspired campus unrest, but which instead provides no actual relief for terrorized Jewish students and infringes on the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This poorly drafted bill only made it to the Floor of the House because the Republican Majority ignored its promise to follow regular order, which resulted in this flawed legislation – the hopefully-named Antisemitism Awareness Act – that causes grave free speech concerns and fails in its prinicpal task of protecting Jewish Americans across the country.
Representative Hageman stated, “It is appalling to see the images of mobs of college students, which have been infiltrated by professional leftist protestors funded by George Soros, co-opting woke U.S. universities to threaten Jewish students in the name of supporting Hamas terrorists. These are acts of intimidation, including denying Jewish students access to certain campus facilities, and threats of violence, which are already illegal and should be prosecuted. I support the goal of the bill – to protect Jewish people in America – but in Congress we must follow the Constitution.
“By using the definition of antisemitism from a foreign non-governmental organization, the bill attempts to criminalize what someone’s ‘perception’ of another person might be, which is a clear violation of the First Amendment. The bill also incorporates some of that organization’s examples of expressions of objectionable antisemitic opinions, which again, while I find them offensive, would obviously be considered Constitutionally protected speech. In the end, the bill effectively invalidates itself because it says it can’t be construed to infringe upon anyone’s rights, but the whole thing is a First Amendment violation on its face. As a final point, I will not vote to replace parts of our Constitution with the findings of a foreign organization on any subject.
“I abhor terrorists, terrorist sympathizers, and antisemites, and I strongly believe the people currently violating laws on college campuses ought to be expelled and prosecuted, or both. But this bill, with its unconstitutional definitions outsourced to a foreign body, is not the answer.”
Background
The bill would require the Department of Education to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism and its contemporary examples to enforce federal anti-discrimination laws established in the Civil Rights Act. A foreign based, foreign controlled institution, means the IHRA is not rooted in a society based on negative rights. This lack of basis in the notion that speech is naturally free from government infringement is reflected in the IHRA’s definition which labels perceptions and speech as illegal actions. Even the drafter of the definition believes it should not be used in the bill.
Even if one were to accept this principle, the bills falls short of extending any real protections. After requiring the Department of Education to use this IHRA definition when reviewing if the Civil Rights Act was violated, it then goes on to clarify that nothing in the bill expands the authority of the Secretary of Education, alters standards to determine discrimination, or infringes on Constitutionally protected rights. Yet, this is exactly the authorities the bill grants, meaning these final provisions gut the bill and render it inoperable, thereby extending no protections to Jewish Americans.