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The Republican-led Senate voted 52-46 along party lines to make Joshua Dunlap, a conservative lawyer from Maine who often worked on conservative legal cases, a life-tenured judge on the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
That court was the only one of the 13 appeals courts without any active judges appointed by Republican presidents. That has helped make district courts in New England a popular place for Democratic state attorneys general and advocacy groups to file cases against Trump’s agenda.

In his first term, Trump didn’t name any judges to the 1st Circuit. At the start of his second term, he almost lost the chance to choose one when his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, put forth a nomination to fill a seat that U.S. Circuit Judge William Kayatta had held.

But Biden couldn’t get Julia Lipez confirmed as his candidate before he departed office. Kayatta, who Democratic President Barack Obama appointed, formally became a senior in October 2024, just days before the presidential election that delivered Trump back to the White House.

In July, Trump chose Dunlap, a partner at the legal firm Pierce Atwood, to fill the open position. He said that if the Senate confirmed him, he would “fearlessly defend our Constitution.”

Dunlap got his bachelor’s degree from Pensacola Christian College and then went to Notre Dame Law School, where he graduated in 2008. During law school, he worked as an intern with what is now known as the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal rights nonprofit.

As a lawyer, he has worked on cases that have challenged Maine’s paid family and medical leave program, the state’s campaign finance rules, and the use of ranked-choice voting to run the state’s elections.

This is the second judge approved this week.

The U.S. Senate also confirmed a former clerk for conservative Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and the late Antonin Scalia to be a judge on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Republican-controlled Senate voted 52 to 45 in favor of Eric Tung, a partner at Jones Day. This made him the first judge President Donald Trump selected for the San Francisco-based appeals court during his second administration.

His confirmation brings the total number of judges Trump appointed to the 9th Circuit from 2017 to 2020 during his first term to 10. This weakens the power of Democratic appointees, who have long held sway on a court that was previously thought to be the most liberal of all the federal appellate courts.

There are currently 16 Democratic appointees and 13 Republican appointees on the 9th Circuit, including Tung. In July, Trump nominated Tung to fill the seat that U.S. Circuit Judge Sandra Segal Ikuta had held. She stated in March that she would step down when a successor was named.

When Trump announced Tung’s nomination, he called him a “Tough Patriot” on social media and said he would preserve the Rule of Law in the “most RADICAL, Leftist States” like California, Oregon, and Washington. These are three of the nine states that the 9th Circuit has jurisdiction over.

Tung is a partner at the law firm Jones Day in Los Angeles. Before that, he was a federal prosecutor and worked for the U.S. Department of Justice.

Tung worked as a clerk for Gorsuch twice: once when he was on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals and again after Trump confirmed him to the Supreme Court in 2017. He had also worked for Scalia, who passed away in 2016.

On “The Ingraham Angle,” which airs on Fox News, Laura Ingraham, the anchor, broke the news on Tuesday night. She stated that the source confirmed that the United States Attorney’s Office in Maryland is conducting the investigation, which may result in charges linked to mortgage fraud.

Fox News reported that the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) had submitted a criminal referral to the Department of Justice, accusing Schiff of falsifying bank documents and property records on multiple occasions in order to secure more favorable loan terms. This new development follows reports that were presented a month earlier.
In an affidavit that he submitted in 2011, Adam Schiff, who was serving as a member of Congress at the time, established that a property situated in Montgomery County, Maryland, was his principal residence.

Additionally, Schiff is the owner of a condominium in Burbank, California, which he mentioned as his primary address as recently as 2023, when he was running for the Senate of the United States of America.

According to Fox News Digital, his office did not immediately react to a request for comment that was made by the site.

During the month of May, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) wrote a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, in which she detailed the allegations of misbehavior that Schiff had committed.

Additionally, it was alleged by Fox News that Pulte later obtained a memo from the financial crimes investigations branch of Fannie Mae, which asserted that Senator Adam Schiff had engaged in “a sustained pattern of possible occupancy misrepresentation” in relation to five Fannie Mae-backed loans.

A home in Potomac, Maryland, was purchased by Schiff and his wife in 2003 for the price of $870,000, as stated in the letter written by Schiff. With the assertion that the property would serve as both their primary and major residence, they were able to obtain a mortgage that was backed by Fannie Mae for the amount of $610,000, with a duration of thirty years and an interest rate of 5.625%.

The letter notes that Schiff and his wife regularly identified the Maryland property as their principal residence in mortgage refinancing forms submitted in 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2013. This was done even while Schiff was sitting as a United notes Representative for the state of California.

Fox News was able to acquire a copy of the affidavit that Schiff completed in 2011 for the purpose of verifying that the Maryland home is his primary residence.

According to Pulte, the pair did not identify the property in Maryland as a secondary house until the year 2020, as Fox pointed out further.

According to Pulte, who cited various accounts from the media, Schiff claimed a homeowner’s tax exemption on a condominium that he owns in Burbank, California, during the same time period. He asserted that the condominium was his primary residence, which resulted in a decrease of $7,000 on the 1-percent property tax.

According to the letter, a spokeswoman for the congressman who was serving at the time stated in 2023 that “Adam’s primary residence is Burbank, California, and will remain so when he wins the Senate seat.”

The federal housing official added that he is of the opinion that Schiff’s claimed conduct may represent violations of federal criminal statutes. These offenses include those that prohibit wire fraud, mail fraud, bank fraud, and making false statements to financial institutions.

Schiff “appears to have falsified records in order to receive favorable loan terms, and also appears to have been aware of the financial benefits of a primary residence mortgage when compared to a secondary residence mortgage,” Pulte wrote.

The ruling from Talwani, an Obama appointee, issued late Tuesday, temporarily halts implementation of the measure, which lawmakers said was intended to prevent taxpayer money from indirectly supporting abortion providers. In her decision, Talwani wrote that Congress may have exceeded its constitutional authority in the way the provision was crafted and applied.

The ruling immediately drew strong criticism from several Republican lawmakers, who argued that the judiciary had overstepped its role and interfered in an area they said falls squarely within the legislative branch’s authority, Newsmax reported.

Lee, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Salt Lake City with experience arguing cases before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, took to X to criticize Talwani’s ruling and propose a possible congressional solution.

“It would take an act of Congress to defund Planned Parenthood,” the senator wrote Tuesday night. “So Congress did precisely that. To suggest Congress somehow lacks the authority to do that is insane — and potentially impeachable.”

Legal scholars note that while impeachment of a federal judge is uncommon, Congress does have the power to remove judges for misconduct or abuse of office. The bar for doing so is high, however, and any effort would depend heavily on political support.

Backers of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act say the legislation was intentionally structured to prevent what they describe as “bureaucratic gamesmanship” that has helped Planned Parenthood avoid funding restrictions imposed by conservative lawmakers.

Republican sponsors said bundling multiple appropriations instructions into a single, wide-ranging measure was meant to strengthen the law’s durability and help it withstand judicial scrutiny. Planned Parenthood praised the judge’s decision, saying in a statement obtained by Politico that the “district court again recognized the ‘defund’ law for what it is: unconstitutional and dangerous.”

Meanwhile, the head of a legal watchdog organization who clerked for one of President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court appointments has accused Chief Justice John Roberts of malfeasance in allowing lower courts to commit “judicial sabotage” against Trump’s second-term agenda.

In an interview with actor and comedian Joe Piscopo for the latter’s podcast, Mike Davis, founder of the Article III Project, referenced a recently filed lawsuit against Roberts targeting him in his role as head of the U.S. Judicial Conference, as well as Robert J. Conrad, director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

The complaint alleges that both the Judicial Conference and the Administrative Office have engaged in regulatory actions that exceed their constitutional mandate, arguing such actions fall outside the judiciary’s core responsibilities of adjudicating cases and providing administrative support.

The lawsuit also contends that records maintained by the U.S. Judicial Conference, under Roberts’ leadership, should be subject to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests as a consequence of the alleged regulatory actions.

In his interview with Piscopo, Davis accused Roberts of refusing to do more to rein in lower federal courts that have imposed a record number of nationwide injunctions against the Trump administration despite several instances where he said the president’s Article II authorities were being trampled.

“I actually like the Chief Justice. I clerked for Justice [Neil] Gorsuch, and I like him personally, John Roberts, but I would say this to the Chief Justice: you have failed to do your job as the Chief Justice of the United States when you have allowed these radical activist judges to sabotage the president’s Article II powers,” Davis said.

“This is an assault on American voters. This is a repudiation of American voters by lifetime appointment, paycheck-protected federal judges who have no—who have no reason to be in this political lane. This is not judicial review. This is judicial sabotage,” he added.

According to a reliable DOJ insider, federal law enforcement agencies are currently coordinating with the U.S. Secret Service to work out the logistics of this unprecedented arrest. These aren’t just rumors from the fringes — this intel comes from inside sources with knowledge of high-level briefings.

If convicted, Obama could face life imprisonment in a federal penitentiary. This would mark the first treason conviction of an American figure of this stature since World War II.

So far, there’s no official public statement from the DOJ or Obama’s legal team. However, sources suggest the timeline for indictment could unfold within days, not weeks.

The allegations reportedly revolve around sensitive intelligence leaks, foreign collaborations during and after his presidency, and internal memos allegedly linked to covert anti-Trump operations.

This story is developing fast. If even part of it is true, we are about to witness one of the most dramatic legal and political moments in American history.

“You have been Minnesota’s Governor since 2019,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon wrote to Walz in a letter obtained by Fox News Digital. “During that time, your careless lack of oversight and abuse of the welfare system has attracted fraudsters from around the world, especially from Somalia, to establish a beachhead of criminality in our country. As President Trump put it, you have turned Minnesota into a ‘fraudulent hub of money laundering activity.’”

McMahon ended her letter by imploring Walz to step down.

“Given your dereliction of the office entrusted to you by Minnesotans, I implore you to resign and make way for more capable leadership,” she wrote.

The letter focuses on Minnesota’s large-scale fraud scandal, which has drawn national scrutiny following allegations that nonprofits, including Feeding Our Future, misappropriated at least $1 billion in taxpayer funds during Walz’s tenure as governor. The education secretary also cited what the department described as widespread fraud within Minnesota’s higher education system.

Separately, the Department of Education announced last week that it had prevented more than $1 billion in fraudulent student aid during President Trump’s first year back in office, citing increased enforcement against suspected automated applications and so-called “ghost students” seeking federal loans.

One of the alleged schemes disproportionately affected Minnesota. According to Fox News Digital, Riverland Community College averaged more than 100 potentially fraudulent student aid applications per year.

McMahon said her department identified nearly 2,000 so-called “ghost students” linked to colleges and universities in Minnesota.

“We call these fraudsters ‘ghost students’ because they were not ID-verified and often did not live in the United States, or they simply did not exist,” McMahon wrote. “In Minnesota, 1,834 ghost students were found to have received $12.5 million in taxpayer-funded grants and loans. They collected checks from the federal government, shared a small portion of the money with the college, and pocketed the rest without attending the college at all.”

She said the department has since implemented stricter nationwide safeguards, including mandatory identity verification for certain first-time applicants, before turning her attention to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).

McMahon wrote that Omar borrowed “tens of thousands” in student loans and “now does not think she should have to repay, despite her generous, taxpayer-funded salary.”

A conservative watchdog group last month called on House Speaker Mike Johnson to pursue garnishment of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s congressional wages over her student loan debt, citing her $174,000 annual salary, Alpha News reported. In her letter, McMahon accused Omar of having “taken advantage” of federal taxpayers.

The letter also criticized Gov. Walz beyond education policy, alleging that his administration oversaw what federal officials described as widespread welfare fraud affecting multiple assistance programs, including housing aid, food assistance, small-business relief, and services for seniors and children with autism.

According to the letter, the fraud allowed perpetrators to enrich themselves while the governor “did absolutely nothing” to prevent it.

“Shame on you, Governor Walz, for allowing this to happen and for benefiting from it,” McMahon wrote. “Stop defrauding American taxpayers. No politician is above the law, and my department, alongside every other agency under the leadership of President Trump, will continue to ensure that you will not be able to dodge accountability for your actions.”

Last week, Walz announced the launch of a new statewide fraud prevention program and the hiring of a private forensic auditing firm.

“I take full responsibility for it,” Walz said. “I think, and I will acknowledge certainly to Minnesotans and to the press here, I don’t think we’ve done a good enough job of communicating the hard work that’s being done.”

Holder said this while talking to Ben Meiselas, who co-founded MeidasTouch, which posted the footage last month.
In the Monday Truth Social post, Trump referred to Holder, who served under Democratic President Barack Obama, as an “Obama sycophant” and said that “Eric Holder (known as ‘FAST AND FURIOUS’) just gave a Speech where he emphatically stated, above all else, that Democrats will PACK the Supreme Court of the United States if they get the chance. The word is, he wants 21 Radical Left Activist Judges, not being satisfied with the heretofore 15 that they were seeking.”

Trump said that getting rid of the filibuster will help Republicans win the 2026 midterm elections and the 2028 presidential election.

“It will be 21, they will destroy our Constitution, and there’s not a thing that the Republicans can do about it unless we TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER, which will lead to an easy WIN of the Midterms, and an even easier WIN in the Presidential Election of 2028,” he asserted.

“Why would the Republicans even think about giving them this opportunity? The American People don’t want gridlock, they want their Leaders to GET THINGS DONE — TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER, AND HAVE THE MOST SUCCESSFUL FOUR YEARS IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY, BY FAR, WITH NOT EVEN THE HINT OF A SHUTDOWN OF OUR GREAT NATION ON JANUARY 30TH!” Trump declared in the post.

This is the second time in recent weeks that Trump has gone after former President Barack Obama.

The new interim U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York, appointed to the post by Trump, once called out Joe Biden and Obama as well as twice-failed presidential contender Hillary Clinton.

John A. Sarcone III, a lawyer in private practice in Westchester County, accused Biden of being a “traitor” and committing “treason” in a 2022 social media post.

After Biden tweeted on New Year’s Eve that year he was “ready to get things done,” Sarcone responded, “Traitor should be tried for treason. Worst person to occupy the White House.”

Sarcone once tweeted that Obama should be “the first illegal alien deported” while calling for Clinton to be jailed for treason.

Sarcone was allowed to be placed in his interim position without needing Senate confirmation. And while he does not have any prosecutorial experience, he has a lengthy track record as an attorney who has also worked for Trump’s campaigns.

When Sarcone was sworn in on Monday in Albany, he defended his limited prosecutorial experience by asserting in his speech that what truly defines a good prosecutor is “judgment.”

“I believe the prosecutorial power, and discretion,” he said, “is best entrusted to those with the full breadth of professional and life experiences, from which common sense, wisdom, and informed judgment emerge.” Sarcone said his priorities will include securing the border with Canada; ending “lawlessness and willful disregard” for federal laws; and fighting against public corruption, scams and consumer fraud.

In addition, the interim U.S. attorney suggested he could target Upstate colleges and universities, saying federal prosecutors will support students’ rights “to be free from harassment or threats because of their religious beliefs.”

“Our reach will not stop at prosecuting those who choose to violate our laws, but also those who knowingly support any violations in any way, shape or form,” he said, as noted by the media outlet in its report.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who sits on the D.C. District Court, issued the surprise order on December 13, directing the FBI to permanently delete all data seized from Columbia Law Professor Daniel Richman—Comey’s longtime friend and former government contractor—by 4 p.m. Monday.

The emails include key exchanges between Richman and Comey that prosecutors allege show Comey authorized leaks and false testimony about his role in Operation Crossfire Hurricane.

The ruling follows the September indictment of Comey on two counts—making false statements to Congress and obstruction of a congressional proceeding—related to his 2020 testimony about the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation. Prosecutors allege Comey falsely denied using intermediaries to leak classified material to the press, and that he used Richman as an outside conduit for anti-Trump leaks while Richman held a government contract.

Six years ago, Judge James Boasberg—himself an Obama appointee—signed the warrant that allowed the FBI to seize Richman’s devices. But Kollar-Kotelly’s order, issued from a separate court and in a separate district, now directs the destruction of that same evidence.

“This ruling threatens the separation of powers essential to the Republic, and either the D.C. Circuit or Supreme Court must intervene immediately,” said Mike Davis, president of the Article III Project and a former Senate Judiciary Committee counsel.

Richman, who is not charged in the case, petitioned for the return of his emails under Rule 41(g) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, arguing that the government violated his Fourth Amendment rights by seizing and reviewing his communications. Rule 41(g) typically allows a defendant to recover property obtained in an unlawful search—but in this case, Richman is a third party, not a defendant, and the communications in question include evidence against a sitting defendant, James Comey.

Despite this, Judge Kollar-Kotelly granted Richman’s motion and ordered that a single copy of the emails be provided to Judge Michael Nachmanoff, who is presiding over the Comey case in Virginia, but barred prosecutors from reviewing or relying on the material in any future filings.

“The FBI and the prosecution will be unable to review them in their efforts to seek a new indictment if [Judge Cameron] Currie’s dismissal ruling survives on appeal,” Davis said. “Even if a higher court reverses Currie, the government’s inability to review the emails to use as evidence and prepare for trial would massively hamper its case.”

Judge Currie, another Clinton appointee in South Carolina, dismissed the Comey indictment last month, ruling that the appointment of interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan—who led the prosecution—was unconstitutional. The Justice Department has appealed Currie’s ruling to the Fourth Circuit.

Davis called the ruling “unprecedented judicial sabotage,” arguing that “Richman has run to a partisan Democrat judge not even involved in the criminal case — and not even in the same district — to procure the destruction of crucial evidence in that case in an obvious effort to assist his friend Comey.”

In a separate op-ed published by Fox News, Davis warned that the decision fits a larger pattern of “leftist judicial interference” aimed at shielding political allies while undermining accountability for the Trump-era lawfare architects.

“Now, a Clinton-appointed judge in the District of Columbia, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, has interfered even more egregiously with the government’s case,” Davis wrote. “Courts do not order the FBI to destroy evidence in pending investigations — except when the evidence is harmful to a lawfare perpetrator like Comey.”

The Justice Department is expected to seek an emergency stay from the D.C. Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court before Monday’s deadline.

If the order stands, prosecutors may lose access to one of the few remaining troves of direct evidence linking Comey to alleged leaks and obstruction. And if higher courts fail to intervene, it could mark the first time in recent memory that a federal judge outside a criminal case has ordered the destruction of key evidence against a former FBI director.

The private deposition is part of an ongoing inquiry by the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee into the Justice Department’s handling of criminal investigations involving Trump during the Biden administration. Smith was subpoenaed earlier this month to produce documents and provide testimony, the Washington Times reported.

His attorneys have said he will comply with the subpoena, despite having previously offered to appear before the committee in a public hearing more than a month ago, the report noted.
“We are disappointed that offer was rejected, and that the American people will be denied the opportunity to hear directly from Jack on these topics,” one of his lawyers, Peter Koski, said in a statement this month. “Jack looks forward to meeting with the committee later this month to discuss his work and clarify the various misconceptions about his investigation.”

Trump, when asked about the meeting, told reporters at the White House he’d rather Smith provide public testimony before Congress: “I’d rather see him testify publicly. There’s no way he can answer the questions.”

Smith is expected to address both of his investigations into Trump but will decline to answer questions involving grand jury materials, which are protected by law, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The person said Smith also plans to push back on what he views as Republican mischaracterizations of his work, including claims related to his team’s use of cellphone records belonging to certain GOP lawmakers.

Smith was appointed special counsel in 2022 to oversee Justice Department investigations into Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and his handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. His team ultimately brought charges in both cases, the Times noted.

Smith later dropped the prosecutions after Trump was elected to the White House again last year, citing longstanding Justice Department policy barring the indictment of a sitting president.

Republicans who control Congress have also sought interviews with individual members of Smith’s investigative team.

In recent weeks, lawmakers have focused on disclosures that Smith’s team reviewed phone records for certain Republican lawmakers as part of its investigation surrounding Jan. 6, 2021, when pro-Trump rioters breached the U.S. Capitol in an effort to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

Prosecutors examined metadata from those records, including incoming and outgoing phone numbers and call durations, but not the contents of the calls, said the outlet.

In October, Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, joined by a coalition of Republican senators and one congressman, sent a formal letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi referring Smith to the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility and two state bar associations for investigation.

The letter accuses the former special counsel of serious professional misconduct that could warrant disbarment, The New York Post reported.

“As part of Jack Smith’s weaponized witch hunt, the Biden DOJ issued subpoenas to several telecommunications companies in 2023 regarding our cell phone records, gaining access to the time, recipient, duration, and location of calls placed on our devices from January 4, 2021, to January 7, 2021,” the letter read. “We have yet to learn of any legal predicate for the Biden Department of Justice issuing subpoenas to obtain these cell phone records.”

The referral follows reports that Smith’s office spied on Republican members of Congress during that same period, using what’s known as a toll analysis — a process that allows investigators to obtain metadata such as call duration, recipient information, and location data from personal devices.

Lawmakers were not notified, nor did they consent to having their private communications accessed.

This move comes during a period of heightened political tension and widespread national attention on campus protests linked to the Israel–Hamas war, which erupted in October 2023 following the Hamas attack on Israel. Over the past several years, but especially after October 7, demonstrations, encampments, and counter-protests have spread across colleges and universities, often leading to accusations that administrators have failed to protect Jewish students from harassment or intimidation. Supporters of the bill argue that adopting a standardized federal definition of antisemitism will give the Department of Education clearer guidance when evaluating civil-rights complaints and determining whether conduct—especially on college campuses—constitutes discrimination on the basis of shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics. Opponents, however, caution that the bill risks conflating political expression with discriminatory action, setting the stage for potential First Amendment conflicts.

The bill was introduced by Representative Mike Lawler (R-NY), who framed it as a necessary response to what he and many other lawmakers describe as a troubling national increase in incidents targeting Jewish students. His legislation incorporates the IHRA’s widely referenced but often debated definition of antisemitism, which describes it as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.” In addition to this broad definition, the IHRA includes several “contemporary examples” that show how antisemitism can manifest, such as promoting conspiracies about Jewish global control, denying the Holocaust, or targeting Jewish institutions for violence. Other examples pertain to political discourse involving Israel, including applying double standards to the Jewish state or denying its right to exist. Under the bill, the Department of Education would be instructed to use both the IHRA’s definition and its contemporary examples when investigating discrimination complaints under Title VI. According to Lawler’s office, this standardized approach would ensure that Jewish students receive the same protections already extended to students of other ethnic or ancestral backgrounds, and would help federal agencies clearly distinguish between legitimate political debate and conduct that veers into unlawful harassment or discrimination. His staff emphasized that the bill was introduced shortly after the October 7 Hamas attack, in what they described as an intensified environment of hostility toward Jewish students across many campuses.

The legislation has drawn strong support from Republican leaders and several Democrats who argue that Jewish students urgently need stronger civil-rights protections. House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, one of the bill’s most vocal supporters, said on social media that she “fully supports Rep. Mike Lawler’s Antisemitism Awareness Act of 2023,” adding that the measure codifies a previous executive order issued during the Trump administration that instructed federal agencies to consider the IHRA definition when enforcing civil-rights laws. Stefanik argued that by making the IHRA definition part of statutory law, Congress would be reinforcing its commitment to ensuring that Jewish students “feel safe once again on campus” and sending a clear message that antisemitism will not be tolerated. Many supporters view the legislation as a necessary response to what they describe as the failure of university administrators to adequately address harassment directed at Jewish students during the recent wave of protests over the conflict in Gaza. They argue that while protest and criticism of Israeli policies are protected forms of expression, universities have at times allowed behavior that crosses the line into threatening or discriminatory conduct. For these lawmakers and advocacy organizations—including several major Jewish groups—adopting the IHRA definition at the federal level would help establish clear boundaries and prevent institutions from dismissing or minimizing Jewish students’ civil-rights complaints.

Opposition to the bill, however, spans ideological lines and raises fundamental constitutional concerns. Representative Jerry Nadler (D-NY), one of Congress’s most senior Jewish members and a longtime civil-rights advocate, argued during floor debate that the legislation could inadvertently narrow the scope of conduct recognized as antisemitic under federal law, while simultaneously creating legal confusion about what constitutes protected speech. Nadler stressed that some of the IHRA’s contemporary examples involve speech that, while offensive or controversial, is nonetheless protected by the First Amendment when expressed in certain contexts. By linking these examples to federal civil-rights enforcement, he warned, the bill risks giving the impression that mere political criticism of Israel—such as opposing Zionism or questioning Israeli government policies—could trigger federal penalties or investigations, even if no discriminatory conduct has occurred. Several Republicans raised similar concerns, with Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY) arguing that the bill was “poorly conceived and unconstitutional.” Massie questioned whether Americans expressing political or historical critiques could face legal consequences, noting that the bill itself does not define antisemitism but instead incorporates external materials that could be interpreted narrowly or broadly depending on agency discretion. Civil-liberties organizations, including the ACLU, have also cautioned that the legislation could chill free speech in academic settings, particularly in debates surrounding Israel, the occupation, and U.S. foreign policy.

Although critics argue that codifying the IHRA definition could have unintended consequences, supporters within Congress maintain that the measure is necessary to address what they describe as a widespread rise in antisemitic incidents within K–12 schools and higher-education institutions. This perspective gained additional momentum as the House Education and Workforce Committee opened new federal inquiries into allegations of antisemitism in several school districts, including the Berkeley Unified School District in California. In letters sent to Berkeley, the School District of Philadelphia, and Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia, Committee Chair Tim Walberg (R-MI) and Subcommittee Chair Kevin Kiley (R-CA) stated that Jewish and Israeli students had reportedly been “regularly bullied and harassed” since the outbreak of the Israel–Hamas war. They expressed concerns that some teachers and administrators had either failed to intervene or had actively contributed to a hostile environment. The letter cited allegations that in Berkeley schools, Jewish students faced open harassment in classrooms and hallways, and that certain staff members had either encouraged the hostility or ignored complaints. These allegations follow a formal complaint filed earlier by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the Anti-Defamation League, which accused the Berkeley school district of allowing “severe and persistent” discrimination against Jewish students. Supporters of the House bill argue that cases like these demonstrate the urgent need for federal agencies to apply a consistent definition when evaluating whether antisemitic harassment has occurred.

With the House having approved the legislation, the bill now moves to the Senate, where its prospects remain uncertain. Senators from both parties have expressed interest in adopting the IHRA definition in some form, but disagreements persist over whether it should be incorporated into federal law or used in a more advisory capacity. Some lawmakers favor alternative definitions, such as the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA), which draws clearer distinctions between political speech about Israel and discriminatory conduct directed at Jewish individuals. Others believe that the IHRA definition—already adopted by dozens of countries and widely used by law-enforcement agencies—provides the most practical framework for identifying antisemitism in complex real-world situations. As the debate unfolds, universities, civil-rights groups, and Jewish organizations are watching closely, aware that the Senate’s decision could shape federal civil-rights enforcement for years to come. Regardless of the bill’s fate, the broader national conversation about antisemitism, free expression, and campus safety is likely to continue well beyond this legislative moment. The controversy reflects deeper societal tensions over how to protect vulnerable communities while preserving robust political debate, particularly during a time of global conflict and domestic polarization. As the Senate considers its next steps, the bill has become a focal point in the ongoing effort to define the boundaries of protected speech, discrimination, and the federal government’s responsibility to uphold civil rights in educational settings.