Politics

David Bernstein | 9.16.2024 8:52 AM

[Cross-posted with my Times of Israel blog]

As Times of Israel readers are well-aware, since October 7, anti-Israel groups have launched widespread assaults on the rights of Jewish Americans, especially but not exclusively on college campuses.

I regularly tweet (@ProfDBernstein) about these incidents and comment, "Where is the Justice Department? Where is the FBI?"

I often get responses like, "isn't the Department of Education investigating some of these colleges? What can the feds really do?"

The answer is that "the feds," and the Department of Justice in particular, could do a lot to protect American Jews, and they are doing little to none of it.

Here are some examples.

(1) The Ku Klux Klan Act prohibits conspiracies to deprive Americans of their civil rights. This Act could be invoked against student groups that are blocking Jewish students from traversing their campuses, as at UCLA, and against groups that blockade public roads, depriving people of their right to travel. The Act has been invoked in private lawsuits, but the Justice Department has not brought a single case.

(2) The FACE Act prohibits "the use of physical force, threat of physical force, or physical obstruction to........

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