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UMass counsel: IHRA definition can be used as guidance without trumping First Amendment protections
Summary
David A. Lowy, UMass general counsel and former Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court justice, told the special commission that the IHRA working definition of antisemitism is nonbinding and can be used in trainings and policy guidance without automatically limiting lawful criticism of Israel or academic freedom.
Justice David A. Lowy, general counsel for the University of Massachusetts system and a former associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, told the state's Special Commission on Antisemitism on Oct. 26 that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) "working definition" should be treated as nonbinding guidance and can be included in trainings and administrative guidance without violating free-speech protections.
Lowy said the IHRA definition itself explicitly states it is not legally binding and that its illustrative examples are often conflated with the definition. "Including that definition in the marketplace of ideas, it's hard to see how that...…
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