President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week to combat campus anti-Semitism. While well-intentioned, the order could raise free speech problems, depending on its implementation. Conservatives who have denounced the campus Left's suppression of alleged hate speech should be concerned about the precedent that the order may set.
Trump's directive addresses a lacuna in antidiscrimination law. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bans discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in institutions receiving federal funding, including colleges and universities. Judaism—and religion in general—is not included as a protected category. The best solution to that discrepancy would be for Congress to amend the statute to expand the protected categories. Instead, the Trump order extends Title VI protections to Jews through a murky set of non sequiturs, conflating race, color, or national origin with Jewish religious practice.
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