Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, says it supports the idea behind the “U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism” but FIRE is also concerned about censorship and First Amendment-protected speech.
"The Biden plan,” Joe Cohn, a FIRE spokesman, says, “is a comprehensive plan that includes some ideas that can be helpful and other ideas, if implemented, would be unconstitutional.”
The so-called “National Strategy” was announced in May and targeted education, especially in higher ed where anti-Semitism is not hard to find. It is also focused on sports, pop culture, and social media.
Meanwhile, nobody who knows about FIRE and its defense of the First Amendment would be surprised to learn a group that grades free speech on college campuses is concerned when the Biden administration gets involved.
According to Cohn and FIRE, each idea of the “National Strategy” should be evaluated on its own, such as the idea to promote dialogue and discussion about anti-Semitism.
After digging deeper, however, FIRE and its attorneys have raised civil liberty concerns about the initiative defining student harassment, for example.
