The US Supreme Court on Tuesday let stand an Arkansas law that penalizes boycotts of Israel. The Arkansas legislation has served as the model for laws in other states, making the court’s message to Israel haters clear.
The supreme rejected an appeal from Alan Leveritt, editor of the Arkansas Times, who lost an appeal in a lower federal court that upheld a law that required him to sign a commitment that his paper would not boycott Israel if it wished to receive Arkansas State ads.
The American Civil Liberties Union petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn the Arkansas law citing NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co. (1982), where the court ruled that popular boycotts are protected speech under the first amendment.
Leveritt insisted that even though he has nothing against Israel, does not wish to boycott it, and, in fact, has no business with the state of Israel that he could boycott, he nevertheless refused to sign the commitment on the grounds that it “requires the Arkansas Times to take a political position in return for advertising.”
Following the ruling on Tuesday, Leveritt announced his newspaper was still going to go without state ads, saying: “We’re not going to sign any political pledges in return for advertising. The supreme court can ignore our first amendment rights but we’ll continue to exercise them vigorously.”
He warned that the court’s decision to let it stand would turn the Arkansas law into a model for copying by even more American enterprises. “This is simply a template. It doesn’t stop here. We now have in the Arkansas legislature bills introduced to deny state contracts to financial and banking institutions that have ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) policies that prohibit them from investing in fossil fuels or firearms companies,” he warned.
He also argued that “in other states, they’ve introduced laws to deny state contracts to any company that subsidizes their employees’ transportation costs if they go out of state for an abortion. So, this is just going to be used time after time after time.”
“Eventually, the supreme court is going to have to deal with it, or else it’s going to be open season on the first amendment,” he warned.
Kenneth Marcus, founder and chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, issued the following statement commending the court’s action:
“Today is a great day for the cause of justice. This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand an important appeals court victory for anti-BDS legislation and civil rights law by denying cert. in the Arkansas anti-BDS case, Arkansas Times LP v. Waldrip. In doing so, the Court put to rest the absurd notion that anti-BDS laws are incompatible with robust protections for the freedom of speech. Anti-Israel boycotts will now be seen for what they are: discriminatory conduct rather than political speech.
“Like many other states, Arkansas had commendably decided that its state’s taxpayers should not subsidize anti-Semitic boycotts of Israel through their government contracting process. When states prohibit discrimination against other groups, they must be consistent in preventing bias against the Jewish people. It is notable that, in this case, BDS supporters could not find even one justice — there were no dissenters — to support their discriminatory activities.
“The Louis D. Brandeis Center was pleased to support the State of Arkansas through its amicus work, just as we have fought BDS in higher education, corporate America, and most recently in the Ben & Jerry’s case. We will continue to fight against discriminatory BDS activities from the campus to the ice cream parlor, and from the boardroom to the U.S. Supreme Court.”
