![handle is hein.journals/forharoc139 and id is 1 raw text is:
ANTISEMITISM, ANTI-ZIONISM, AND TITLE VI:
A GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED
Benjamin Eidelson* & Deborah Hellman**
The past eighteen months have seen an unprecedented wave of
claims by public officials and private plaintiffs that universities are vi-
olating their legal obligations to Jewish students under Title VI of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964.1 These charges center on an equally unprece-
dented wave of anti-Israel and anti-Zionist activity on college campuses,
much of which is alleged to cross the line from ordinary political activ-
ism into antisemitism.2 Yet there has been little direct engagement by
scholars of antidiscrimination law with the merits of these exceptionally
high-stakes claims about Title VI.3 And even as universities and their
allies have begun to resist the demands of the Trump Administration's
Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, they have focused overwhelm-
ingly on the procedural irregularities of the enforcement effort rather
* Professor of Law, Harvard Law School.
** Robert E. Scott Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law. For
helpful comments and conversations, we thank Nikolas Bowie, Andrew Crespo, Ryan Doerfler,
Richard Fallon, Noah Feldman, Kim Forde-Mazrui, Sherif Girgis, Daphna Renan, Ben Sachs, Tim
Scanlon, Richard Schragger, Micah Schwartzman, Larry Schwartztol, Matthew Stephenson, and
Cass Sunstein, as well as Ilai Gavish, Abigail Simon, and Caroline Daniel, who also provided ex-
cellent research assistance. The views expressed are solely those of the authors.
1 Title VI provides that [n]o person ... shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin,
be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under
any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. 42 U.S.C. § 20o0d. For examples
of the claims referenced in the text, see Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting
Antisemitism: Hearing Before the H. Comm. on Educ. & the Workforce, 118th Cong. 77 (2023)
(statement of Rep. Bob Good) (Why should Congress continue to invest money in Harvard
when Harvard clearly violates Title VI and helps foster . . . a hostile environment for Jewish stu-
dents?); U.S. HOUSE OF REPS., STAFF REPORT ON ANTISEMITISM 4-5 (2024), https://
www.speaker.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/House-Antisemitism-Report.pdf [https://perma.cc/
VgEZ-MW4P]; First Amended Complaint at 2-7, Students Against Antisemitism, Inc. v. Trs. of
Columbia Univ., No. 24-cv-01306 (S.D.N.Y. filed June 17, 2024), ECF No. 39 [hereinafter Columbia
Complaint]; Press Release, U.S. Dep't of Just., DOJ, HHS, ED, and GSA Announce Initial Can-
celation of Grants and Contracts to Columbia University Worth $400 Million (Mar. 7, 2025),
https://www. justice.gov/opa/pr/doj-hhs-ed-and-gsa-announce-initial-cancelation-grants-and-contracts-
columbia-university [https://perma.cc/NPgH-QHQD].
2 See, e.g., Colbi Edmonds, Anna Betts, & Anemona Hartocollis, What to Know About the
Campus Protests over the Israel-Hamas War, N.Y. TIMES (Apr. 28, 2024), https://www.nytimes.com/
2024/04/17/us/college-protests-israel-hamas-war-antisemitism.html [https://perma.cc/3DTX-GA22].
3 Two draft articles are notable exceptions. See generally Jacob E. Gersen & Jeannie Suk
Gersen, The Six Bureaucracy (Mar. 30, 2025) (unpublished manuscript), https://ssrn.com/
abstract=5199652 [https://perma.cc/5E76-PXXW]; Zalman Rothschild, Anti-Zionism, Antisemi-
tism, Antidiscrimination, 101 IND. L.J. (forthcoming 2025) (on file with the Harvard Law School
Library).
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