Columbia University says it will expel students who took over a campus building Tuesday as ongoing protests against Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza continue to roil college campuses across the country. 

“Students occupying the building face expulsion,” Columbia spokesperson Ben Chang said in a statement. “Protesters have chosen to escalate to an untenable situation — vandalizing property, breaking doors and windows, and blockading entrances — and we are following through with the consequences we outlined yesterday.”

Dozens of protestors stormed Hamilton Hall overnight. The academic building was similarly taken over during anti-Vietnam War protests in the 1960s. 

Demonstrators this week who made it inside the building barricaded the doors, while hundreds more formed a human chain around the building. 

Columbia has threatened to expel students involved in the occupation of the building.

The move came as tensions continue to escalate on campuses across the United States, where pro-Palestinian protestors have taken to setting up campus encampments and other demonstrations.

The White House rebuked the protestors who took over Hamilton Hall.

“The president believes that forcibly taking over a building on campus is absolutely the wrong approach, that is not an example of peaceful protests,” White House national security communications adviser John Kirby told reporters Tuesday.

Kirby stressed that disrupting education for other students on campus is “unacceptable.”

Some Republicans have suggested sending in the National Guard to rein in the protests, but Kirby said there is no active effort to federalize the guard.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who went to the Columbia campus last week, denounced the demonstrations and said he has urged Biden to also visit the campus to see what’s happening first-hand.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment on Johnson’s remarks.

The Hill’s Lexi Lonas and Miranda Nazzaro consulted experts on the topic, noting that “while protesting is a sacred right in the U.S. and is all the more cherished on college campuses, hundreds of students have been arrested in multiple states as administrators and elected officials try to enforce what they see as essential boundaries.”

The Biden administration is working to reclassify marijuana as a lower-risk substance — a step toward aligning the nation’s drug laws with public opinion.

A source familiar with the decision confirmed to The Hill Tuesday that marijuana will be shifted from the list of Schedule I drugs, considered the most dangerous, to the lower tier Schedule III. Drugs on the Department of Justice‘s (DOJ) Schedule I include ecstasy, heroin and LSD. Schedule III drugs include anabolic steroids, testosterone and ketamine.

The process could take several months as it moves through the Office of Management and Budget protocol before it can be implemented.

The plan wouldn’t entirely legalize cannabis due to potential conflicts with state laws regulating its possession and sale.

Americans overwhelmingly favor full marijuana legalization, according to a Gallup poll from November that found a record 70 percent of people surveyed said they are in favor. 

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) says she will, at some unspecified point, call for a vote to oust Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), despite pushback from members of her own caucus and a vow from Democrats to save Johnson’s job.

The top three House Democrats — Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (Mass.) and caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (Calif.) —  announced Tuesday that they will vote to table a motion to vacate the Speakership if Greene brings it to the floor, effectively killing the effort and saving Johnson’s job. But Greene said in a post on the social media platform X that she plans to bring it to the floor anyway. 

“If the Democrats want to elect him Speaker (and some Republicans want to support the Democrats’ chosen Speaker), I’ll give them the chance to do it,” Greene said. “I’m a big believer in recorded votes because putting Congress on record allows every American to see the truth and provides transparency to our votes.”

Greene filed the motion last month but has not said when she plans to trigger a vote on it.

Only two other Republican lawmakers — Reps. Thomas Massie (Ky.) and Paul Gosar (Ariz.) — have said publicly that they support Greene’s ouster effort.

Related coverage:

• Newt Gingrich praises Johnson in Washington Times column.
• Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) files ethics complaint against special counsel Jack Smith over Trump investigation.

“Only aggressive US diplomacy can avert an Israeli-Hezbollah War,” writes Edward Gabriel, president of the American Task Force on Lebanon and a former U.S. ambassador to Morocco. 

“Everything you need to know about the TikTok ban — and why it might not even matter,” writes Aron Solomon, JD, chief strategy officer for Amplify, a legal marketing agency.