Russell Coleman, Kentucky attorney general, defends law aimed at ending antisemitism on college campuses amid legal challenges.
On Jan. 12, Murray State University sent an email to students informing them of the campuses’ new antisemitism policy. The policy was adopted after the signing of Kentucky’s Senate Joint Resolution 55, which required Kentucky universities to adopt policies against antisemitism. Following a lawsuit by University of Kentucky law professor Ramsi Woodcock challenging the law’s definition of antisemitism, Coleman signed a brief defending the law.
“There’s no place for antisemitism in the Commonwealth, especially on Kentucky’s college campuses,” Coleman said in a press release. “Universities exist to encourage and expand the minds of their students, not to spread fear, exclusion or violence.”
The policy adopted by this law reiterates Jewish students’ religious protections and their right against being harassed. The policy also expressed punishment for any student groups found to be supporting “designated terrorist organizations.”
The following policy uses the definition of antisemitism employed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
“Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews,” the policy reads. “Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
Woodcock was suspended from his position last July for criticisms made against the state of Israel. Woodcock, who runs the website antizionist.net and has repeatedly referred to the nation as a colonial project engaged in apartheid and genocide, hosted a petition on his website calling for global military action against Israel. UK President Eli Capilouto called Woodcock’s remarks “repugnant” and said it called for the destruction of people based on national origin.
UK suspended Woodcock pending an investigation into his comments. In response, Woodcock sued the UK in November for violating his First Amendment rights. In that lawsuit, Woodcock also levied legal action against the Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, seeking an injunction against the use of the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
The IHRA’s website lists examples of antisemetic language such as comparing Israel’s action to the Nazi’s or “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.” According to Woodcock’s lawsuit, the IHRA’s definition of antisemitism can be used to punish constitutionally-protected remarks critical to Israel under Title IX.
Woodcock’s lawsuit also mentions that the passage of SJR 55 was helped in part by members of the Heritage Foundation’s “Combat Antisemitism Movement.”
The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think-tank known for its proposed Project 2025. The lawsuit also quotes Kenneth Stern, one of the drafters of the IHRA definition, who spoke out against its use in legislation.
“The IHRA working definition of antisemitism that is being adopted as a de facto hate speech code at universities around the country was never intended to be used to determine whether speech should be disciplined,” Stern said. “It was never intended to be used by campus administrators at all.”
Woodcock’s lawsuit is still ongoing, but seeks a declaration that SJR 55’s incorporation of the IHRA’s definition violates the First Amendment and would prevent the Department of Education from using the definition in enforcing Title IX proceedings.
