AMCHA INITIATIVE CONDEMNS CALIFORNIA SENATE COMMITTEE VOTE TO ADVANCE FACULTY UNION LEGISLATION AIMED AT WEAKENING VITAL CAMPUS PROTECTIONS
Bill threatens campus safeguards designed to protect free speech, educational access and Jewish students from disruptive and exclusionary protests
Contact:
amcha@berlinrosen.com
Santa Cruz, CA, August 14, 2026 – AMCHA Initiative Director Tammi Rossman-Benjamin issued the following statement today condemning the California Senate Appropriations Committee’s decision to advance AB 2551:
“AMCHA Initiative strongly condemns yesterday’s decision by the California Senate Appropriations Committee to advance AB 2551, legislation sponsored by the California Faculty Association as part of a broader effort to dismantle protections around existing time, place, and manner restrictions that ensure Jewish and all students ability to coexist and fully participate in campus life
“Although an earlier provision repealing protections enacted after October 7 was removed following public outcry, CFA has been remarkably candid that its objective has not changed. At the Senate Education Committee hearing, CFA legislative action chair Melina Abdullah called AB 2551 “a first step towards ending time, place and manner restrictions.”
“And that is only one part of CFA’s agenda.
“Last year, CFA adopted an academic-boycott resolution demanding that the California State University “immediately and permanently terminate” study-abroad programs in Israel and end academic and cultural partnerships with Israeli universities. In other words, the same faculty union seeking to dismantle reasonable rules governing disruptive protest is also pressing the nation’s largest public university system to implement an academic boycott that would restrict educational opportunities, scholarly exchange and academic freedom.
“These efforts are not unrelated. By embracing academic boycott, CFA has used its institutional power to amplify the same anti-Israel campaign whose campus manifestations have included the disruption, intimidation and exclusion that made time, place and manner protections necessary. Now, invoking free speech, it seeks to weaken those very protections.
“AB 2551 must not become law.
“The fight now moves to the Senate floor. We urge California senators -- particularly those who care about student safety, academic freedom and the integrity of public higher education -- to vote NO on AB 2551.
“California lawmakers should not help a faculty union dismantle the protections students need while it works to turn the university itself into an instrument of academic boycott and political exclusion.”
AB 2551 would jeopardize the reasonable time, place and manner protections that allow free speech and educational access to coexist on California campuses. These rules do not prevent protest; they establish necessary boundaries so that demonstrations do not disrupt classes, block access to campus spaces or prevent students from fully participating in university life. Weakening these protections risks empowering the kinds of disruptive and exclusionary protest activity that have already interfered with Jewish students’ ability to access educational opportunities and participate equally in campus life.
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AMCHA Initiative is a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to combating antisemitism at colleges and universities in the United States. The organization monitors more than 750 campuses for antisemitic activity, as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and the U.S. government. AMCHA is not a pro-Israel advocacy organization, nor does it take a position on current or past Israeli government policies; criticism of Israel that does not meet the IHRA and U.S. government criteria is not considered antisemitic by the organization. AMCHA has recorded more than 11,000 antisemitic incidents on college campuses since 2015, which can be accessed through its Antisemitism Tracker.