Thoughts on MTG's thought process folks?
It's complex. (Not MTG's thought process, obviously, but
my own thoughts.)
Saying that "the Jews" handed over Jesus is indeed antisemitic.
Saying that "Caiaphas and some other important Jews were instrumental in forcing the Romans to act, according to the Bible" would not be.
That said, the law is, at best, empty pandering.
And some of the details of the pre-existing law are kind of infuriating when you think about them.
(IANAL)
From the
bill:
1) title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000d et seq.), prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving Federal financial assistance;
Notice anything missing in that list? That's right.
(2) while such title does not cover discrimination based solely on religion, individuals who face discrimination based on actual or perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics do not lose protection under such title for also being members of a group that share a common religion;
Why doesn't it cover religion? Primarily because Congress was worried that Bob Jones University and Liberty University et al. couldn't suck off the public teat if they forced faculty to sign doctrinal statements that would be discriminatory. Bob Jones U sued to be awarded GI Bill veteran's benefits for a veteran student, but
lost because they discriminated against black people at the time. But discriminating on the basis of religion is perfectly legal.
So it was and still is legal (at least under title VI) for institutions to say "No people of the Jewish faith need apply" and take federal money, as some religious institutions no doubt do, at least in terms of faculty hiring, maybe also student body, I dunno.
But it was and still is illegal to refuse Abraham Sapirstein, an adult convert to Christianity, a job because he is of Jewish ancestry.
At best this new law draws attention to this latter detail, without actually changing any circumstances.
If they really wanted to curb public funding of discrimination, they could add religion to the list of protected class in Title VI.
It still wouldn't affect hate speech, since the First Amendment is what it is, but it could stop the flow of public money to institutions that discriminate on the basis of religion.
