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Editors’ Pick

March 28, 2023

How Bad Arguments Undercut Georgia Legislation against Anti-Semitism

Despite suggestions to the contrary, amending existing hate-crime laws doesn’t threaten free speech.

Last week, the Georgia state senate decided not to advance a bill that would classify attacks on Jews as hate crimes—a legal category that in Georgia already protects those targeted because of their race, sexual orientation, national origin, and so forth. The bill, in part a response to the distribution of anti-Semitic flyers in the Atlanta area, may have floundered because of its use of the much-maligned definition of anti-Semitism produced by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). In February, Mark Goldfeder wrote the following in defense of the legislation:

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