March 20, 2017
Members of Congress
United States Capitol
Washington, DC 20510
RE: The Constitutionality of The Anti-Semitism Awareness Act
Dear Senator/Representative:
I write on behalf of the ADL, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, AIPAC, and the Jewish
Federations of North America. These four organizations have differing perspectives on many
issues, but they speak with one voice in their support of the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act. That
bill would supplement existing law prohibiting anti-Semitic harassment on college campuses by
providing a much-needed and workable definition of anti-Semitism, one that is already employed
by the federal government in other contexts. This proposal passed the Senate unanimously last
year, but it stalled in the House of Representatives based in part on suggestions that the Act
would violate the First Amendment.
While efforts by public universities to directly regulate student speech do raise serious
First Amendment issues, the Act is fundamentally different and concerns about its
constitutionality are misplaced for multiple reasons...
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