One had rather hoped that American universities — those self-proclaimed citadels of enlightenment and free inquiry — might have learned something from the sordid pageant of McCarthyism. Apparently not.

The University of California, Berkeley, an institution that once prided itself on being the very cradle of the Free Speech Movement, has now distinguished itself by compiling and surrendering a list of 160 names to the Trump administration’s Department of Education. The crime of these faculty members, students, and staff? They stand accused — though “accused” dignifies the process far beyond what it deserves — of “alleged antisemitic incidents.”

160 names. No notification. No due process. No defense.

Let us pause to admire the exquisite cowardice of that bureaucratic formulation: “alleged antisemitic incidents.” Not proven. Not substantiated. Not even clearly defined. Merely alleged — a word that in the hands of the vindictive and the opportunistic becomes a license for unlimited persecution.