S. 826 — Preventing Antisemitic Harassment on Campus Act of 2025

This section amends Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000d et seq.), which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in programs or activities receiving federal financial assistance, as follows: (1) adds religion as a prohibited basis for discrimination; (2) exempts from the religious discrimination prohibition any program or activity conducted or controlled by, or otherwise affiliated with, a religious organization, including a student religious organization; (3) defines discrimination, for purposes of postsecondary educational programs or public systems of higher education, to include deliberate indifference to harassment that is so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it denies a victim equal access to the program's resources and opportunities; and (4) establishes as U.S. policy the enforcement of Title VI against antisemitism—which is defined as a certain perception of Jews, expressed as hatred toward Jews, directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals or their property, or Jewish community institutions or religious facilities—no less vigorously than against other prohibited forms of discrimination.

This section establishes sanctions— notwithstanding the standard administrative procedures under section 602 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964—for institutions of higher education receiving federal financial assistance under the Higher Education Act of 1965 that the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights finds in violation of title VI of the Civil Rights Act (prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, or national origin) with respect to antisemitic discrimination in a particular program, after notice and an opportunity for a hearing. For a second such violation within the prior five years, the Secretary of Education must impose a fine of at least 10% of federal assistance received by that program in the violation year (and subsequent years if the violation persists for 90 days or more); for a third violation within the prior five years, the fine is at least 33% on the same basis. The Secretary may waive counting multiple violations as separate if they were conducted by non-institution persons or staff and occurred within 24 hours; must monitor private title VI lawsuits alleging antisemitic discrimination to independently assess violations; requires found-violator institutions to notify all students, faculty, and staff; and must report each fine imposed to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, including circumstances.

This section requires each federal department and agency, and each court, in determining Title VI noncompliance with requirements adopted under section 602 or violations of the title—which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in federally assisted programs—to consider specified factors, including (1) the person's prevention of discrimination and remediation (including disciplining faculty and staff) with respect to discrimination on another ground prohibited by section 601, and (2) such prevention and remediation with respect to discrimination against another group on the same ground for which the determination is being made. The section further authorizes a court that finds a Title VI violation or upholds an agency noncompliance determination to appoint a monitor to review and report on implementation of any remedy.

This section provides rules of construction stating that nothing in this Act or its amendments shall be construed (1) to expand the authority of the Secretary of Education; (2) to infringe on or diminish rights protected under any other provision of law; (3) to create any negative inference as to federal legal protections for victims of antisemitism or prohibitions on antisemitic discrimination prior to enactment; or (4) to infringe on, diminish, or conflict with First Amendment rights.

This section establishes a severability clause, providing that if any provision of the Act or its amendments, or its application to any person or circumstance, is held unconstitutional, the remainder of the Act, its amendments, and their application to other persons or circumstances remain unaffected.