Image by Getty Images

Lawyer Alan Dershowitz is afraid that America is growing increasingly intolerant toward opposing views. His proof, according to his recent op-ed in The Hill: Friends are ostracizing him in Martha’s Vineyard.

Dershowitz, an emeritus professor at Harvard Law School and frequent cable news talking head, maintains that he has defended President Trump’s civil liberties just as he would have defended Hillary Clinton’s had she been elected. Some his old friends in Martha’s Vineyard don’t see it that way, however; he said they are “shunning” him.

Some, he said, have demanded “trigger warnings” so they could move to “safe spaces” away from his ideas. Others said they will no longer contribute to organizations that sponsor his discussions.

“These childish efforts to shun me because I refused to change my position on civil liberties that I have kept for half a century discourages vibrant debate and may dissuade other civil libertarians from applying their neutral principles to a president of whom they disapprove,” he wrote.

He compared the situation to Congresswoman Maxine Waters encouraging her supporters to harass Trump’s Cabinet members wherever they find them, resulting in a situation such as when White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was booted out of the Red Hen restaurant.

“I intend to speak up when I disagree with Republicans, and I intend to speak up when I disagree with Democrats,” he concluded. “Right now I am speaking up in disagreement with Maxine Waters. She — like those who shun me on Martha’s Vineyard — is part of the problem rather than the solution.”

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at fisher@forward.com, or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher