Posted on 02/01/2022 11:39:19 AM PST by nickcarraway
Texas law barring state contractors from boycotting Israel violates firm’s free speech, federal judge rules Texas is one of more than two dozen states with laws that seek to limit boycotts, divestments and sanctions of Israel over its treatment of Palestine.
Texas can’t forbid an engineering firm from boycotting Israel as part of its contract with Houston City Hall, a federal judge has ruled.
U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen on Friday stopped short of fully blocking a state law that prohibits government agencies from doing business with certain companies that boycott Israel. But his ruling said the free speech rights of A & R Engineering and Testing Inc. would be violated if its contract with the city included a clause saying the company will refrain from such a boycott. Hanen also said that Texas could not enforce its law against the company or the city.
A & R Engineering and Testing Inc. is being represented by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization. In a news conference Monday, the organization lauded Hanen’s decision but still pushed for the state’s anti-boycott law to be overturned.
According to the lawsuit, in October, A & R was entering into a renewal contract with Houston when it was required to certify that it wouldn’t boycott Israel during the length of the contract. The company asked the city to take the stipulation out of the contract, but the city refused, citing state law.
In court documents, the city of Houston had said it would follow the state law, but that it took no position on its constitutionality.
Texas passed an anti-BDS law in 2017. In 2019, it was rewritten to exclude individual contractors and only pertain to businesses with 10 or more full-time employees and when the contract is for $100,000 or more.
Before the law was rewritten, a federal court temporarily blocked the original law statewide in a lawsuit involving a speech pathologist who worked in the Pflugerville Independent School District. In that case, the U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman ruled that the statute suppressed “unpopular ideas” and manipulated “the public debate through coercion rather than persuasion.”
Simple - just rewrite the law to ban the state from working with any company that supports BDS.
Solves the “free speech” problem in the way leftists love.
“Free speech has consequences”
But of course… bake that gay wedding cake.
Or, accept that Americans have a constitutional right to criticize or boycott any foreign country they choose, and working a government contract shouldn’t curb your 1st Amendment rights, any more than working a government contract should curb your right to bodily autonomy regarding Covid vaccines.
As much as I detest BDS, I'm skeptical this should be a law.
We hate to admit but I think the judge is right.
Free speech is either applied universally or its not free speech.
Now then, if a PRIVATE company said IT would not do business with companies that boycotted Israel, that would be in THAT company’s free speech rights.
The difference is individuals and private individual units have free speech rights, unlike the government which for the most part has to be neutral else it is imposing speech limitations and not honoring free speech rights.
I agree. I am totally opposed to BDS, but still, having this law makes me uncomfortable. I don’t like states forcing people to follow their beliefs.
GW Bush judge.
STAY OUT DA BUSHES!
“We hate to admit but I think the judge is right.
Free speech is either applied universally or its not free speech.
Now then, if a PRIVATE company said IT would not do business with companies that boycotted Israel, that would be in THAT company’s free speech rights…”
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Except the odds are this same judge would NOT rule the same both ways. So many times it’s ONLY A ONE WAY STREET.
If only my philosophy on this can get applied to all controversial topics government schools are not indoctrinating our children in, from the LGBT agenda, to the “trans” and “gender fluidity” agenda, to the CRT agenda, all of which take a single side, among many, on controversial items and make that one side the government’s view, trampling the free speech rights of everyone, of every family, to decide those issues themselves.
What I am not speaking of there is how teachers and school administrations - those in charge - treat any child. Yes, in that regard teachers and everyone in public school administration cannot show discrimination against a LGBT or “trans” kid. However, THAT is the limit of their non-discrimination requirement and does not include “teaching” the political agenda demanding moral or personal social acceptance, or ANYONE. In sum, public school employees non-discrimininaton requirements do not extend to the students themselves or to the curriculum; only to fair treatment academically for everyone.
The left really are the real racists.
True dat...
If it’s coolacious to boycott Christian companies like Chick-Fil-A but it’s harmful against free speech to boycott anti-sematic companies ... you might be a Democrat.
This isn’t a free speech issue.
The Texas law prohibits doing business with firms not based upon their words, but upon their actions, e.g. refusing to do business with Israel.
Texas agencies were perfectly free to contract with companies that hate Israel, so long as those companies didn’t refuse to do business with it.
I agree. There are far too many government thought-control intrusions on our personal liberties.
Free “speech” ? I’m speechless.
They misspelled the judge’s name its Haman like
the biblical Jew Hater who was hung with all his
kinfolk.
Where is our Queen Esther of Texas?
That's dumb, suppose I sold Israel some widgets, and they were slow to pay me or they stiffed me. Well I would never do business with them again, not because I am an anti-Semite, but because I lose money when they are my customer.
So under such circumstances I would be allowed to sell my Widgets to Texas??
I think a company should have the right to boycott any country they want, but I don’t see that a government is required to do business with such a company.
This.👍
FWIW, Hanen has been a pretty good jurist.
From July 2021
BREAKING — A federal judge in Texas has ordered the Biden administration to suspend the DACA program for “Dreamers.” finding it illegal.
Agreeing to a request by Texas, Judge Andrew Hanen is ordering the government to stop approving new DACA requests.
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