The law requires colleges and universities to get approval before hiring or working with Chinese people who aren’t US citizens or green card holders
A legal challenge filed by two graduate students and a professor argues, among other things, that the state law usurps the power of the federal government
Last year, with an eye to curb Chinese influence in the state, Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a bill requiring state colleges and universities to get government approval before they hire or work with Chinese people who aren’t US citizens or green card holders.
Since then, schools in the state have scrambled to comply. In December, Miami-based Florida International University paused the hiring of Chinese and citizens of six other “countries of concern” also targeted by the law – Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Russia, Syria and Venezuela – while waiting for the state university system’s board of governors to create a vetting process. ⠀
“Requiring the board of governors’ approval means it is next to impossible to obtain approval,” said Sumi Helal, a professor of computer and information science and engineering at the University of Florida.
Helal said he was “intent on leaving” the school. ⠀
Last year, DeSantis said his anti-Chinese influence efforts provided a “blueprint for other states to do the same”.
And according to political observers in the state, the governor may double down on his education policies. David McDonald, a political science professor at the University of Florida, said that “being an education ‘culture warrior’” was a “perceived strength of his when conservative activists helped push critical race theory and anti-trans rhetoric and policies onto the political agenda”. ⠀
“Our academic community thrives on international collaboration. SB 846 is a malicious and xenophobic bill that directly attacks our community,” said Eva Garcia Ferres, co-president of Graduate Assistants United at the University of Florida.
Pretty sure that this is unconstitutional. States do not have the right to set foreign policy, which this clearly is.
But it’s not. It covers state-run schools.
It’s dumb and xenophobic, but not foreign policy.
Sorry but it pretty clearly IS within the scope of foreign policy (as well as being dumb and xenophobic). The law seeks to impose limitations upon those with non-US nationality. It does not matter that these are state schools. It matters that it is an attempt to undermine treaties that the Federal government has signed with the government of the PRC as well as the State Department’s visa regulations
This is a clear-cut case of both Federal supremacy AND Article 1 Section 10 of the US Constitution which prohibits states from engaging in international affairs and treaties.