NJ Free Speech 2025 Assembly Challenge: Voter and Candidate Pledge
Editor’s Note: In NJ in 2025, the entire NJ Assembly legislative body is up for elections. The following is a statement of NJ voters and NJ 2025 Assembly candidates who are pledged to work to protect NJ’s rights to protected free speech which are currently in peril in NJ. Following the statement is a form that supporters and potential candidates can use to indicate their agreement and support for the NJ Free Speech 2025 Challenge.
We the undersigned are joining in unity to defend and protect our beloved US Constitutional First Amendment free speech rights. In NJ those rights are under attack due to legislative bills introduced and promoted by NJ legislature members, led by the Democratic Party, with the strong support of their Republican counterparts. There are a pair of laws being promoted in the NJ Senate (S1292, S2937) and a corresponding version of one of the laws in the NJ Assembly (A3558) . One proposed law set (S1292 / A3558) would impose the “IHRA” fictitious definition of anti-Semitism which falsely identifies criticism of Israel as “antisemitism” as NJ state’s legally accepted definition of antisemitism.
The other proposed law S2937 – which currently only has a NJ Senate version provides the enforcement mechanism. It calls for the removal of NJ state funding from any school, library, college, local town, non-profit or any other recipient if found to be lacking strict adherence to enforcing the false conflation of criticism of Israel as antisemitism.
Passage of these proposed measures would encourage institutions to be overzealous in repressing free thought and expression to minimize the threat of losing funding. They will be quick to call the police and to take punitive action causing legal harm to a segment of NJ’s population that probably includes 1 million or more NJ voters with a world view that might stray from unquestioning support for Israel. These measures will also result in massive litigation and threats both by those attempting to restrict opposition to their pro-Israel views and those who are legally harmed and defending or seeking relief from the harms these laws would cause, costing millions in tax dollars in legal expenses to manage the legal chaos.
AS ASSEMBLY CANDIDATES
Those of us deciding to run in support of the NJ Free Speech 2025 Challenge:
We are committed to fully leveraging our political campaign for NJ Assembly seats in NJ in 2025 for the defense of the free speech rights of all NJ voters, citizens and residents by helping with the fight to defeat these bills (current list S1292, S2937 and A3558) and any other attempt to eliminate our constitutionally protected free speech rights in NJ. We will organize our legislative district around the goals of protecting free speech working with like minded community members, organizations and others dedicated to defending our beloved free speech rights.
AS NJ VOTERS . . .
We are committed to opposing any attempt to infringe upon our beloved US Constitution Free Speech protected by the First Amendment and specifically by efforts to impose the false IHRA definition of :antisemitism.” We pledge to vote against any candidate that supports ( S1292, S2937 and A3558) or any other law that would impose the IHRA false definition of anti-Semitism or to take legal action based upon the fraudulent IHRA.
We pledge to vote only for those candidates who have signed this pledge or otherwise proclaimed opposition to IHRA’s conflation of criticism of Israel with antisemitism or any other attempt to repress our right to free speech in NJ.
We pledge to sign the petitions of Assembly candidates in our Legislative Districts who have signed this pledge or otherwise proclaim opposition to the IHRA fraudulent definition and as our capacity permits to assist in their efforts to complete petitions, campaign and gather electoral support in approach to election dates.
We pledge that we will continue to share and promote messaging of the political efforts to protect our free speech and we will as capacity permits support and attend events and mobilizations to demonstrate support for and defense of the US Constitutionally protected First Amendment free speech rights of all NJ voters, citizens, residents and visitors.
YES CONTINGENT UPON CAPACITY, I AM COMMITTED TO VOTING TO SUPPORT CANDIDATES DEDICATED TO PROTECTING OUR BELOVED FIRST AMENDMENT PROTECTED FREE SPEECH RIGHTS AND I MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN RUNNING FOR NJ ASSEMBLY IN 2025 TO PROTECT FREE SPEECH IN NJ ! (Signing does not commit you – our NJ Free Speech 2025 Challenge team will contact you to determine how you can run or help the effort. )
What the Democrats in the Assembly did to try to stop us:
