Action Alert: Students' Free Speech Rights Are Under Attack

[palestinianrightssacregion at list.omsoft.com]

We need the community to attend the CA Assembly Judiciary Committee hearing on July 2nd at 8:30am to express its opposition to SB 1287, a bill that attempts to violate students' free speech rights. It is important to show up in large numbers at this hearing to voice our opposition to the bill. You should have an opportunity during public comment on the bill to say, "I oppose this bill." Below are some JVP talking points on the measure. 
We hope you can attend this important hearing.  

► SB 1287 IS PRIMARILY REDUNDANT LAWAfter being amended to delete several of its most flagrant violations of the First Amendment, SB 1287 reads mostly like a solution in search of a problem. Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act and existing California law already require UC, CSU, community colleges and most private institutions in the state to protect students from harm and empower them – subject to constitutional limits – to bar violence, illegaldiscrimination and acts of harassment or intimidation that create a “hostile environment” that preventsmembers of the campus community from enjoying the benefits of higher education and campus life.► SB 1287 IS STILL UNCONSTITUTIONALNevertheless, SB 1287 still attempts to violate students’ and faculty’s constitutionally protected right to freespeech by mandating the imposition of unspecified additional restrictions on student codes of conduct andby forcing students to waive these rights in order to enroll. This violates the First Amendment and theCalifornia Constitution.► SB 1287 IS AN ATTEMPT TO STIGMATIZE AND SUPPRESS CERTAIN SPEECHSB 1287 was introduced to try to silence students exercising their rights of free speech about Israel’sattacks on Gaza, for which the war crimes of ethnic cleansing and genocide have been charged by majorhuman rights organizations.►SB 1287 DOESN’T FIGHT ANTISEMITISM, IT FEEDS ITThis includes Jewish students who do not agree with the pro-Israel lobby. The implied premise of the bill isthat ALL Jews think and act alike, which is clearly false. Criticizing Israel and advocating for a society withfreedom and equality for all are not antisemitism, let alone a threat to us as Jews; calling it that weaponizesfalse charges of antisemitism in service of a new McCarthyism – and makes Jews and everyone else lesssafe.► SB 1287 IS INTENDED TO BULLY STUDENTS INTO SILENCESB 1287 seeks to bully students into silence by threatening them if they voice certain opinions. Today thoseopinions are about stopping the killing of civilians in Gaza. In the past such opinions could have beendemanding equal rights for all regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation or stopping the war onVietnam. Tomorrow these restrictions could be used against a different group.► SB 1287 IS A WASTE OF TAX DOLLARSCurrent law and public colleges and universities already protect students. SB 1287 would force them towaste untold tax dollars to first create new codes of conduct and train staff on them, then to defend the bill’sunconstitutional provisions in court, all at a time of major state deficits.
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