Foreign Lobbyists Have Built a Legal System to Bypass the First Amendment

About this episode

This episode explores the legal framework built by foreign lobbyists to suppress political speech in the U.S. under the guise of combating antisemitism.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has flown to Jerusalem multiple times to sign Florida laws on foreign soil. He's not the only one. Thirty-eight US states have adopted the IHRA framework — a definition of antisemitism whose own author, Kenneth Stern, has been telling Congress for years is being weaponized to silence political speech about a foreign government. This episode walks through what's actually been built. The state laws. The federal Title VI enforcement wave. The lobbying network — Joseph Sabag, Eugene Kontorovich, Richard Goldberg, the Brandeis Center, the Combat Antisemitism Movement, ALEC. The federal court rulings calling it viewpoint discrimination and a smokescreen for ideologically-motivated assault. The Americans already hurt — Mahmoud Khalil, who missed the birth of his first child during 104 days in a Louisiana detention facility for activities the State Department's own memo described as "otherwise lawful." Harvard, hit with a $2.2 billion funding freeze before a federal judge struck it down. Then the foreign comparison. The United Kingdom: thirty arrests per day for online speech. Germany: five years in prison proposed for a phrase. France: criminal prosecutions…

People in this episode

Hosts: Matthew Carano, CJ Killmer

Topics covered

• foreign lobbying
• First Amendment
• antisemitism
• political speech
• viewpoint discrimination
• free speech
• legal system

Keywords

• foreign lobbyists
• First Amendment
• antisemitism
• political speech
• viewpoint discrimination
• free speech
• state laws
• federal enforcement
• detention facility
• criminal prosecutions

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Brandeis Center, Combat Antisemitism Movement, ALEC, Harvard

Places: United Kingdom, Germany, France

More episodes of Brave The New World

• Trump Called Netanyahu "Crazy." Israel Bombed Lebanon Anyway. · June 3, 2026 · 1h 18m
• The Mad Dream of Conquest: From Iran to Oman, an Empire That Can't Stop. · May 29, 2026 · 1h 27m
• Is $32 Million To Take Out Massie An Act Of War? · May 21, 2026 · 1h 11m
• The Most Orwellian War in Modern History | CJ Killmer Returns · May 15, 2026 · 1h 19m
• The US-Iran Deal Trump Knows He Has to Take · May 12, 2026 · 42 min
• The SPLC Funded the Klan. Then Tripled Its Revenue. · April 24, 2026 · 45 min