by Chris Menahan, Information Liberation:
The GOP-controlled Ohio Senate has overwhelmingly passed a bill aimed at outlawing criticism of Israel, criminalizing preaching the Gospel and expanding hate crime “ethnic intimidation” laws to fight “antisemitism.”
They know the bill blatantly infringes on the First Amendment but they simply don’t care.
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The Ohio Senate passed a bill Wednesday that would use an international group’s definition of antisemitism in state law, a move that garnered strong opinions both in support and against it in committee as recently as the morning of the chamber vote.
Ohio Senate Bill 297, passed with a 27 to 4 vote, would add to Ohio law the definition of anti-semitism adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, and used in an executive order by Gov. Mike DeWine in 2022 encouraging state agencies, including state higher education institutions to use the definition as a guide for agency investigations.
The IHRA identifies antisemitism as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. 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.”
In addition to cementing the definition into Ohio law, the bill would broaden the criminal offense of “ethnic intimidation” to add “riot and aggravated riot committed by reason of the race, color, religion or national origin of another person or group of persons.”
Senators on both sides of the aisle expressed support for the bill. Bill sponsor Sen. Terry Johnson, R-McDermott, used part of his floor speech to talk about the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.
[…] Sen. Paula Hicks Hudson, D-Toledo, was one of four senators to vote against the bill. Her opposition comes from “heated” conversations she’s had with constituents in her area.
She said S.B. 297 carves out a “super-protected class,” and doesn’t help solve the problem of antisemitism and hate speech.
“When we look at the language of this bill, and we look at how it comes down to what the law should and should not do, what we are doing is criminalizing free speech,” Hicks Hudson said. “We are not coming up with an answer by doing this.”
The GOP senators insisted the bill wasn’t an attack on free speech and wouldn’t be used for criminal prosecutions even though that’s the entire purpose of the legislation.
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