Two recent legislative proposals in Maryland and New York – drafted in retaliation against academic organzations’ support of academic boycotts against Israel – seek to penalize professional associations and their members for engaging in protected political activity.
While NCAC is critical of academic boycotts because, unlike economic boycotts, they “strike directly at the free exchange of ideas,” “two wrongs do not make a right,” said Executive Director Joan Bertin. Regardless of how one views academic boycotts by private professional organizations, “faculty at state-supported colleges and universities have a constitutionally protected right to express unpopular political views, to associate with like-minded individuals, and to engage in collective political activities.”
Read more about the Statement to the NY State Legislature
Read more about the Statement to the MD State Legislature