Report details ‘McCarthyite’ crackdown on campus speech

A "widespread, McCarthyite censorship" campaign by the Trump administration led to the suppression of pro-Palestinian speech at colleges and universities across the nation, a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International concluded.

The report, titled "Student Speech Under Attack: Suppression of Pro-Palestine Speech and Dissent on Campus," stems from a two-year investigation of incidents at 46 public and 34 private university and college campuses across 28 states and Washington, DC. The findings were based on analyses of school policies and records, federal officials’ statements, court records and interviews, among other materials, according to the report.

It documented what it called "heavy-handed and excessive responses" by certain college and university administrators to widespread campus protests that followed the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

President Donald Trump has made combatting antisemitism a key initiative in his second term, which has led to a number of legal conflicts with colleges and universities the administration has accused of not doing enough to protect Jewish students amid pro-Palestinian protests.

Combatting antisemitism is a "worthy goal," the report said, but it called the administration’s interpretation of what constitutes harassment "overbroad" and said it has "(forced) universities to censor political speech the administration…

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/