Update: On February 12, 2021, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals held that an Arkansas law requiring government contractors to pledge not to boycott Israel or reduce their fees by 20 percent violates the First Amendment. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Arkansas Times LP, which was penalized by the government after it refused to certify that it is not boycotting Israel or Israel-controlled territories.
Calling the law an unconstitutional tax on free speech, the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas filed suit challenging a state law that requires government contractors to pledge not to boycott Israel or reduce their fees by 20 percent. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Arkansas Times LP, asserts that the law (Act 710), which took effect in August 2017, violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution by suppressing one side of a public debate and imposing a tax on constitutionally-protected free speech.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court on behalf of Arkansas Times LP, which for many years has contracted with state actors to run advertisements in its various publications for Pulaski Technical College (UAPTC).
This year, on the basis of Act 710, UAPTC demanded that the CEO, Alan Leveritt, sign a certification agreeing that Arkansas Times LP will not engage in a boycott of Israel as a condition of the contract. Leveritt refused to sign any such certification and accordingly UAPTC has refused to enter into further advertisement contracts with Arkansas Times LP.
Asserting that Act 710 restricts the ability of Arkansas Times LP to exercise its First Amendment right to engage in political expression and imposes an ideological litmus test on government contractors’ protected political beliefs, the lawsuit asks the court to declare the law unconstitutional and enjoin the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees from enforcing it.
Since 2017, the ACLU has successfully blocked anti-boycott state laws in Kansas and Arizona. In January 2018, a federal district court preliminarily enjoined an anti-boycott state law in Kansas, holding that the First Amendment protects citizens’ right to “band together” and “express collectively their dissatisfaction with the injustice and violence they perceive, as experienced both by Palestinians and Israeli citizens.” In September, a district court enjoined a similar anti-boycott law in Arizona.
