CAFFS Executive Director Speaks About Limits of Title VI Enforcement at International Conference

In January, Center for Academic Freedom and Free Speech Executive Director Joe Cohn presented a legal analysis of the Trump Administration’s efforts to enforce Title VI, speaking to an international audience at Haim Striks Law School in Rishon le-Zion, Israel. Title VI is a federal statute that forbids discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in education.

The conference, “Navigating Campus Free Speech in Polarized and Turbulent Times,” brought together scholars and practitioners from Australia, England, Israel, and the United States. Panels included “Academic Freedom in Theory and in Practice” and “The Campus at Wartime: How Universities Manage Wartime Tensions.” Cohn participated in the panel “Guardians or Czars? Government Regulation of Campus Speech.”

 VIDEO: “Guardians or Czars? Government Regulation of Campus Speech”

Cohn’s presentation provided an introductory explanation of relevant First Amendment jurisprudence and some background on Title VI, which since 2004 has been interpreted by every presidential administration as prohibiting antisemitic harassment (as well as harassment targeting Arabs, Muslims, and Sikhs) when the harassment could be reasonably traced to the shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics of the targets.

A bulk of his presentation, however, analyzed how the courts have been evaluating the constitutionality of the various actions the current Trump Administration has taken to, at least in part, address antisemitism on college campuses.

Actions the administration has taken that Cohn discussed include doubling down on an executive order Trump issued during his first term which required federal agencies to consider the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism when enforcing Title VI; arrests and attempted removal of noncitizens in the U.S. who had expressed views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in tension with the Administration’s position; the freezing of huge amounts of federal funds to several elite institutions of higher education, and threats to rescind Harvard’s tax-exempt status.

As part of his presentation, Cohn discussed Harvard’s two lawsuits challenging the federal government’s freeze of $9 billion in funding to the institution and in its decision to revoke Harvard’s ability to enroll international students. According to Cohn, the government had taken those steps in response to the institution rejecting demands, including one that Harvard investigate academic departments for potential ideological capture and another that the school stop funding student organizations that support the pro-Palestinian cause.

Cohn explained that Harvard prevailed on getting preliminary injunctions on the international students enrollment ban that was later turned into a permanent injunction. Harvard also got an injunction on the funding freeze.

Read Cohn’s paper, “Can He Really Do That? A Legal Analysis of the Trump’s Enforcement of Title VI for Combatting Antisemitism on Campuses.”