In his commencement address, Butker said, “Congress just passed a bill where stating something as basic as the biblical teaching of who killed Jesus could land you in jail.” (For those of you not familiar with age-old antisemitic tropes, the “who” in this sentence is almost certainly the “Jews.”)
More specifically, Butker is referring to the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which was passed this month in the House, but not the Senate, and isn’t law. Contrary to Butker’s description, the bill does not include criminal sanctions and only applies to educational institutions that receive federal funding. In a nutshell, the bill provides guidance to the Department of Education in determining whether certain speech on college campuses is antisemitic.
But what is most bizarre and disturbing about Butker’s comment is the idea that he believes needs to be defended from Congress: namely, the right of Catholics to suggest that the Jews killed Jesus.