U.S. government attacks free speech through executive orders
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
—First Amendment to the Bill of Rights, United States Constitution
A major free speech battle is unfolding between Harvard University and the Trump administration, centered around allegations of anti-Semitism.
Harvard, claiming its First Amendment rights were violated, is suing the federal government. The Trump administration accused Harvard of failing to protect Jewish students, but Harvard cited over a year of reforms in response.
Critics say the government retaliated by freezing $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts. Harvard reported receiving stop-work orders within hours of the freeze, according to its April 21 complaint.
Harvard also alleged that the federal government planned to pull an additional $1 billion of funding for health research.
“The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights. Neither Harvard nor any other private university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government,” declared Harvard President Alan Garber, in a statement published April 21.
Harvard’s complaint claims the government violated the First Amendment and federal law by freezing research funds under Title VI, despite Harvard’s ongoing anti-Semitism reforms. The funding cuts, it argues, target unrelated research and were made without dialogue.
The lawsuit comes after President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 13899 – Combating Anti-Semitism (EO 13899, signed near the end of his first term on Dec. 11, 2019), which claimed that “students, in particular, faced anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on university and college campuses.”
In his second term, President Trump signed Executive Order 14188- Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism on Jan. 29 to reaffirm EO 13899. There are concerns these executive orders could be merged with a plan called Project Esther to enforce this “anti-Semitism” policy, using the full force of the federal government.
EO 14188 attributes the October 7, 2023, Hamas retaliatory attacks in Israel as “unleash[ing] an unprecedented wave of vile anti-Semitic discrimination, vandalism, and violence against” American citizens, especially in schools and on campuses.
While this most recent executive order does not mention a policy paper called Project Esther, is it possible that this proposed strategy may have influenced EO 14188?
What is Project Esther?
Project Esther is based on the fictional story of “Queen Esther,” a heroine who saved her Jewish people from a scheme to destroy their entire population in Persia.
According to critics, Project Esther was published because a conservative think tank is angry over the pro-Palestinian protests occurring on college campuses across the country, thus labeling the demonstrations as “anti-Semitic.”
The plans are outlined in the document “Project Esther: A National Strategy to Combat Antisemitism,” and it has drawn heavy criticism from free speech and human rights advocates for its dangerous rhetoric.
“The Trump administration’s push to cast pro-Palestinian protesters as Hamas supporters—and then use anti-terror and immigration laws to quiet campus demonstrations—was forecast in a little-known plan last year from the creators of Project 2025,”
Wrote Russell Contreras in a March 25 article published in Axios titled, “How ‘Project Esther’ forecast Trump’s plan to silence protests, boost deportations.”
The Trump administration’s strategy is to eventually ask the Supreme Court to give President Trump more power to deport immigrants with fewer judicial restraints, Mr. Contreras alleges.
“And like Project 2025, Esther and the Trump administration’s moves that mirror much of it are sounding alarms among progressives who say the effort promotes censorship, unfairly labels protesters as terror supporters and is a tool of Christian nationalism,” Mr. Contreras wrote.
But there is staunch opposition from Jews and other critics, who say President Trump is using “anti-Semitism” as a cover for his EOs 13899 and 14188. Project Esther has also sparked heavy criticism.
“We do not and will not accept the claim that the right-wing Christian Heritage Project represents us. As Jews, we advocate for ourselves,” Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP) said in a statement in response to Project Esther.
On jewishvoicesforpeace.org, under “JVP Rabbinical Council Praises new ‘Rejecting Project Esther’ report,” the group said it is proud to identify as part of the Palestinian Solidarity movement and welcomes and supports the Academic Council’s in-depth scholarly response to the malevolent designs of Project Esther, titled ‘Rejecting Project Esther: Understanding Christian and White Nationalism as Racism and Antisemitism.’”
“Our Torah teaches us that safety and security are found in the collective protection of those most vulnerable. The genocide in Gaza; violent attacks and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank; and repression of Palestinians’.
Rights within the 1948 borders of the State of Israel, policing even their right to read about their own history, are all egregious violations of our deepest moral values. These heinous actions do not, and will never, protect Jews as Project Esther disingenuously claims.”
The statement continues: “Our own government’s proposed move toward full liquidation and occupation of Gaza is but a preview of the violent ends of these plans.
Any claim that violence against Palestinians is necessary to protect Jews is itself antisemitic, hijacking us in opposition to our own core commitments to the work of pursuing justice. There is no possible justification for the violence Israel has, and continues to, inflict on Palestine,” the statement continues.
On April 22, the American Association of Colleges and Universities—leaders of more than 180 of America’s colleges, universities, and scholarly societies—issued a joint public statement (“A Call for Constructive Engagement”) “against the unprecedented government overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education.”
“We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight. However, we must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live, and work on our campuses. We will always seek effective and fair financial practices, but we must reject the coercive use of public research funding,” read their statement.
Others were targeted in addition to Harvard. In March, the Trump administration canceled about $400 million in federal funding to Columbia University, citing the school’s failure to address alleged harassment of Jewish students.
Columbia, which holds over $5 billion in federal grants, was notified of a broader review of its funding under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. In response, on March 21, the university announced major policy changes, including reviews of several academic programs related to the Middle East, such as the Center for Palestine Studies and the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies.
What the Trump administration is doing is illegal and unconstitutional, argued Dr. Wilmer Leon, political scientist, host of Connecting the Dots podcast and author of “Politics: Another Perspective.”
“(Free speech) it’s not gone. It is under attack, and we very well may stand on the precipice of losing it. But it’s up to the courts and it’s up to the people to defend it,” Dr. Leon told The Final Call. Project Esther is a reflection of White Nationalist, Christian Nationalism, manifesting itself through the Trump administration, he noted.
“The framers of the Constitution were very clear about there not being a national religion, and that the First Amendment … does not promote a particular religion,” said Dr. Leon. He argues that the issue is violating the due process clause under the guise of deportations of “illegal” immigrants, as seen recently with Venezuelan nationals.
“That was, to me, just the cover or the trial balloon … because if the administration was successful in being able to deport these immigrants without due process, then we would be next,” argued Dr. Leon. “I don’t think that’s a conspiracy. I think when you connect a few dots, it’s pretty apparent,” he added.
Student protesters who have exercised their free speech rights by participating in demonstrations calling out Israel’s genocide in Gaza have already been targeted.
The most prominent of these cases involves Mahmoud Khalil, 30, a Palestinian student and activist at Columbia University. Mr. Khalil was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in March and has been in custody in Louisiana awaiting his appeal to avoid being deported.
Another Columbia student, Mohsen Mahdawi, also Palestinian, is in custody in Vermont and is being threatened with deportation. He was detained by ICE agents while at an interview to finalize his U.S. citizenship.
According to the Associated Press, Mr. Mahdawi’s lawyers said he “was detained in retaliation for his speech advocating for Palestinian human rights.” He is due back in court May 1.
This begs the question as to whether President Trump’s executive orders, along with what is revealed in Project Esther, will continue targeting institutions and individuals, and to what end?
And what could be the free speech fallout from labeling people who espouse pro-Palestine views, criticize Israel, or critique and criticize the harmful conduct by some members of the Jewish community as anti-Semitism?
There is mounting concern in America that the Trump administration’s executive orders and Project Esther will put more people at risk for unlawful detentions, targeting or deportation, whether they are U.S. citizens or not.
Dr. Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles and Black Lives Matter grassroots, described Project Esther as a disinformation campaign to label protests against Israeli actions as anti-Semitic.
“It is not anti-Semitic to say that the people of Palestine deserve their lives, they deserve peace, they deserve their own land, they deserve to live in a decolonized state,” Dr. Abdullah, also a professor of Pan-African Studies at California State University Los Angeles, told The Final Call.
“Project Esther is about lying about what anti-Semitism is in order to advance an agenda that allows for the genocide and what they call ethnic cleansing of Palestinian land,” she said.
Free speech and false charges
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan in part 19 of his historic 2013 lecture series, “The Time and What Must Be Done,” stated “… According to the dictionary, a Semite is ‘a member of any of the peoples who speak, or spoke, a Semitic language’—but it then adds this to the definition: ‘including, in particular, the Jews and the Arabs.’”
Minister Farrakhan explained that this is a “rather deceitful definition” and proceeded to point out the deception. “Today we would like to enlighten you on whom the real ‘Semitic people’ are, if you’re going to use that definition,” Minister Farrakhan said.
“Anyone who speaks the Semitic language: What is the ‘Semitic language?’ You say it is Arabic and Hebrew, but let me ask you the question, ‘When did you learn Hebrew and Arabic, and from whom?’
Certainly, you are not The Original speaker of such language. The original people of that area are not White, the original people of that area are Black,” he continued.
“And The Original Language of The Original Man is Arabic; and a dialect of that is Hebrew. So where did you get it? How did you get it? … ,” Minister Farrakhan continued.
For decades, Minister Farrakhan has pointed out the dangers of charging people with anti-Semitism who speak out about the wrongdoings of Israel or members of the Jewish community.
This list has included many Black people, including the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Minister Farrakhan, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Michael Jackson, Oprah Winfrey, Ice Cube and many more. Even Whites have been tagged with this label, including former U.S. presidents like Jimmy Carter, who was outspoken about the need for Palestinian rights and authored the book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.”
In part 22 of his lecture series, Minister Farrakhan referenced an August 14, 2022, interview of former Israeli Minister Shulamit Aloni with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! In introducing Minister Aloni, Ms. Goodman said the following:
“Yours is a voice of criticism we don’t often hear in the United States. Often when there is dissent expressed in the United States against policies of the Israeli government, people here are called ‘anti-Semitic.’ What is your response to that as an Israeli Jew?”
Minister Aloni responded stating: “Well, it’s a trick, we always use it. When from Europe somebody is criticizing Israel, then we bring up the Holocaust. When in this country people are criticizing Israel, then they are anti-Semitic.
And the organization is strong, and has a lot of money, and the ties between Israel and the American Jewish establishment are very strong and they are strong in this country, as you know.
And they have power, which is OK. They are talented people, and they have power and money, and the media and other things; and their attitude is ‘Israel my country, right or wrong,’ identification—and they are not ready to hear criticism.
And it’s very easy to blame people who criticize certain acts of the Israeli government as ‘anti-Semitic,’ and to bring up the Holocaust, and the suffering of the Jewish people, and that is [to] justify everything we do to the Palestinians.”
