Cracking Down on US Colleges, for Israel

The United States government does not need to give a dime to any college. But, if it does continue its funding of colleges, the First Amendment of the US Constitution bars that funding from being denied to a college because the college is determined to have insufficiently prevented speech the US government opposes, such as speech the US government deems to be critical of the Israel government.

For this reason, President Trump’s effort to crack down on and bar funding to colleges the US executive branch concludes have insufficiently prevented anti-Israel or “antisemitic” speech should be, and can be expected to be, struck down by courts. (“Antisemitic” under the peculiar definition being pushed by the Trump administration includes speech against the Israel government, not just speech against an ethnicity or religion as the term “antisemitic” is generally understood to indicate.)

This conclusion of unconstitutionality follows from a basic understanding of constitutional law that System Update host and astute politics commentator Glenn Greenwald described well in a video monologue he released this week. Anyone tempted to give Trump the benefit of the doubt concerning this flagrant attack on constitutional rights would do well to give Greenwald a listen: