{"id":418622,"date":"2026-07-30T22:47:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T22:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/418622\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T22:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T22:47:11","slug":"california-law-against-antisemitism-in-schools-to-be-enforced-judge-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/418622\/","title":{"rendered":"California law against antisemitism in schools to be enforced, judge rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

A California<\/a> law to prevent antisemitism in schools will be enforced after a federal judge dismissed a challenge from teachers and students who said it violated free speech.<\/p>\n

US District Judge No\u00ebl Wise on Tuesday ruled against a lawsuit opposing Assembly Bill 715, which went into effect in January. The new law introduces measures to curb the \u201cwidespread surge in antisemitic discrimination, harassment, and bullying\u201d faced by \u201cJewish and Israeli American pupils across California.\u201d<\/p>\n

As part of the law, California is establishing an Office of Civil Rights with a new statewide antisemitism prevention coordinator for public schools, who has not yet been appointed. The law mandates teachers to provide \u201cfactually accurate\u201d instruction rather than \u201cadvocacy, personal opinion, bias, or partisanship.\u201d It requires local educational agencies to take action if they find that instruction or school-sponsored materials are discriminatory.<\/p>\n

A group of teachers, students and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee filed a challenge in November. They said the law was unconstitutionally vague, chilled speech in the classroom about Palestinians and discriminated against Palestinian, Arab and Muslim<\/a> students and perspectives.<\/p>\n

Wise said it was too soon to consider these claims, given the uncertainties still surrounding the new Office of Civil Rights, its leadership and how it will define and respond to antisemitism.<\/a> She also said that teachers and students did not provide sufficient evidence of infringements on free speech, and teachers could not claim speech rights on the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeacher Plaintiffs are not acting as private citizens and therefore do not have First Amendment rights while teaching,\u201d Wise said in her ruling.<\/p>\n

She also dismissed the claim that the law would discriminate against non-Jewish students. \u201cThe existence of an Antisemitism Coordinator does not change the Office\u2019s overarching purpose to stop discrimination generally; it merely reflects the State\u2019s decision to accord specific funds to a specific problem,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Malak Afaneh, a staff attorney at ADC, said the group was reviewing the court\u2019s decision and considering its options.<\/p>\n

\u201cAB 715 has already caused educators to alter the way they teach out of fear that classroom discussions or activities could trigger complaints or investigations,\u201d Afaneh said in a statement. \u201cWhen teachers feel compelled to abandon cultural identity projects or avoid discussions about Palestine, it is students who are denied the opportunity to engage with diverse ideas and perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Jewish Community Relations Council of San Francisco celebrated Wise\u2019s decision as \u201cgreat news.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis ruling, and the fact that the case has been dismissed with prejudice, affirms that AB 715 is a strong, legitimate approach to protecting Jewish students<\/a>, and all students, against harassment and discrimination,\u201d the group said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A California law to prevent antisemitism in schools will be enforced after a federal judge dismissed a challenge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3629,167417,7,9,8,13469,28222,37484],"class_list":["post-418622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-antisemitism","tag-arabs","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-discrimination","tag-muslims","tag-palestinian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}