Programming note: We’ll be off on Monday for Labor Day but will be back in your inboxes on Tuesday. To keep following our reporting on the end of state lawmakers’ session, read our continued California coverage here and subscribe to POLITICO Pro. CODES OF CONDUCT: California’s public universities have warned they won’t tolerate pro-Palestinian encampments like the ones that cropped up across the country last spring. But as students return to college for the fall term, lawmakers want campus leaders to go even further. The most sweeping bill introduced by the Jewish Caucus in March after a violent protest at UC Berkeley is on its way to Gov. Gavin Newsom. The proposal, introduced as part of a legislative package targeting antisemitism, would require the institutions to train students on how to protest with civility and update their codes of conduct. The remaining bills enjoy broad support from both parties and have glided through the statehouse despite free speech concerns from activists and a handful of progressive lawmakers. That’s been a major win for caucus members, who’ve vented about what they saw as a lackluster response from university leaders to harassment of Jewish students — including when protesters at UCLA blocked self-identified Zionists from using some campus pathways. After a final Assembly vote on state Sen. Steve Glazer’s mandatory training legislation, Senate Bill 1287, caucus members patted Glazer’s back and hugged him. “I think no one expected this level of antisemitism in modern America,” Glazer told Playbook. “It’s important and significant that the Legislature has made it clear how important it is to us to set fair standards for how students should conduct themselves.” The training requirements may not stop with the University of California and California State University systems. Assemblymember Laura Friedman has a bill that would also require students at private universities to take anti-discrimination trainings, separate from those on sexual harassment. It cleared the Legislature this afternoon. At the K-12 level, legislation from state Sen. Henry Stern would have the state create a professional development program for teachers on Holocaust education, an attempt to encourage more teaching on the subject. Yet the efforts have struck a nerve with activists, particularly within the pro-Palestinian protest movement. Those demonstrators have questioned officials’ emphasis on Jewish students, saying too little focus has been given to violence committed against pro-Palestinian demonstrators — who were brutally beaten by counterprotesters at UCLA during the spring. Members of the UC student worker union that led a Gaza protest strike during the spring showed up in droves to committee meetings to voice their opposition to Glazer’s bill. The ACLU, so often aligned with California Democrats, argued it would chill free speech. University rules already prohibit harassment on the basis of identity, as does federal law, the progressive group pointed out. “Campuses already have codes of conduct prohibiting unlawful harassment, violence, and threats,” the ACLU wrote in one opposition letter. “These existing policies ensure safe educational environments without encroaching on vital First Amendment freedoms.” But if the policies are duplicative, groups should have no reason to oppose updating university codes of conduct, said Jewish Caucus Co-Chair Jesse Gabriel, who has been particularly vocal about the Jewish community’s struggles since Oct. 7. That proposal has been narrowed since it was first introduced, removing a limitation on speech that would have banned calls for genocide. “We worked with some of the most notable First Amendment lawyers in the country, people who have argued cases before the Supreme Court, people who are big champions of freedom of speech and freedom of expression,” Gabriel told Playbook. “The whole idea here is to prevent people from using violence or harassment or intimidation or discrimination that is intended to interfere with speech or interfere with people's civil rights.” IT’S THURSDAY AFTERNOON. This is California Playbook PM, a POLITICO newsletter that serves as an afternoon temperature check on California politics and a look at what our policy reporters are watching. Got tips or suggestions? Shoot an email to lholden@politico.com.
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