NEWSOM VETOES BILL TARGETING POST-OCT. 7 CAMPUS PROTEST RULES; AMCHA APPLAUDS MOVE TO PROTECT STUDENTS
Campus antisemitism watchdog says veto protects rules designed to prevent harassment, intimidation and disruption from denying students equal access to campus life
Contact:
amcha@berlinrosen.com
Foster City, CA, September 29, 2026 – AMCHA Initiative today commends California Gov. Gavin Newsom for vetoing AB 2551, legislation sponsored by the California Faculty Association (CFA) that AMCHA warned could undermine enforcement of campus protections adopted amid the post-Oct. 7 antisemitism crisis on California campuses.
“Governor Newsom’s veto protects rules that have been critical to restoring order on California campuses and safeguarding Jewish and other students from harassment, intimidation, exclusion and disruption,” said AMCHA Initiative Director Tammi Rossman-Benjamin. “We are deeply grateful that he rejected an effort to create new avenues for political pressure on those rules and their enforcement.”
AB 2551 originally sought to repeal provisions of SB 1287, the 2024 law enacted amid an extraordinary surge in campus antisemitism following Hamas’ October 7 attack. The repeal was later removed, but the final bill would have required universities to separately report disciplinary actions stemming from campus protests and establish a special forum for students to challenge time, place and manner protest rules and their enforcement.
AMCHA warned that singling out protest-related discipline and creating a special venue devoted to challenging protest rules would create an ongoing mechanism for political pressure on universities’ enforcement of protections adopted after campus protests repeatedly crossed from protected expression into harassment, intimidation, obstruction and disruption.
The bill’s principal sponsor, the California Faculty Association (CFA), had made clear that it viewed AB 2551 as part of a broader campaign against those restrictions. CFA Political Action and Legislation Committee Chair Melina Abdullah called the bill a “first step towards ending time, place and manner restrictions.”
“Time, place and manner rules are not an attack on free speech,” Rossman-Benjamin said. “They are what allow robust protest to take place without permitting protesters to trample the rights of everyone around them. After everything California campuses experienced following October 7, weakening those protections would have been a serious step backward.”
AMCHA opposed AB 2551 throughout the legislative process, warning lawmakers and arguing in published commentary that it threatened rules intended to protect students from harassment and disruption and to preserve lawful protest.
“Governor Newsom heard the concerns surrounding this bill and acted,” Rossman-Benjamin said. “California’s universities now have the responsibility to enforce these protections consistently so that no student is again forced to choose between participating fully in campus life and protecting themselves from harassment and intimidation.”
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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 12,000 antisemitic incidents on college campuses since 2015, which can be accessed through its Antisemitism Tracker.