{"id":1527058,"date":"2022-06-23T15:35:27","date_gmt":"2022-06-23T19:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1527058"},"modified":"2022-06-23T15:35:51","modified_gmt":"2022-06-23T19:35:51","slug":"federal-court-smacks-down-effort-to-nullify-arkansas-anti-bds-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-court-smacks-down-effort-to-nullify-arkansas-anti-bds-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Court Smacks Down Effort To Nullify Arkansas\u2019 Anti-BDS Law"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffederal-court-smacks-down-effort-to-nullify-arkansas-anti-bds-law%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1527058&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>A federal appeals court overruled a plea to overturn the state\u2019s anti-Israel boycott legislation Wednesday, a ruling defendants now hope to bring before the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p>The 8th Circuit Court ruled against the Arkansas Times\u2019 case that the law, which would require the newspaper to sign a document affirming it would not participate in a boycott of Israel, violated the First Amendment. The court opinion\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ecf.ca8.uscourts.gov\/opndir\/22\/06\/191378P.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">found<\/a>\u00a0that the law prohibits \u201ceconomic decisions that discriminate against Israel\u201d and does not unconstitutionally compel speech regarding Israel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday is a resounding victory for Arkansas\u2019s anti-discrimination law and reinforces Arkansas\u2019s relationship with our long-time ally, Israel,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/arkansasag.gov\/news_releases\/rutledge-wins-at-8th-circuit-preventing-discrimination-against-israel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said<\/a> Attorney General Leslie Rutledge in a statement. \u201cArkansas had to spend taxpayer resources proving that Arkansas Times is not entitled to discriminate.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Today, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an Arkansas law that discourages \u201cBoycott, Divest, Sanction\u201d (BDS) against Israel. Missouri and a coalition of other states submitted an amicus brief in support of the Arkansas law. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/G1KroOXqAX\">pic.twitter.com\/G1KroOXqAX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Attorney General Eric Schmitt (@AGEricSchmitt) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AGEricSchmitt\/status\/1539662030839304192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 22, 2022<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The Arkansas Times plans to appeal the case to the Supreme Court and will be represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a nonprofit civil rights firm, publisher Alan Leveritt told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an email.<\/p>\n<p>Arkansas introduced <a href=\"https:\/\/law.justia.com\/codes\/arkansas\/2017\/title-25\/chapter-1\/subchapter-5\/section-25-1-503\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">legislation<\/a> in 2017 requiring entities with state contracts to reduce fees by 20% if they refused to agree not to boycott Israel. The University of Arkansas\u2019 Pulaski Technical College <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/us-appeals-court-rules-that-laws-against-israel-boycotts-dont-violate-constitution\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">threatened<\/a> to cancel an advertising contract with The Arkansas Times, citing the state law, according to The Times of Israel. <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2022\/06\/23\/google-stockholders-reject-activists-claim-israel-deal-harm\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>(RELATED: Stockholders Reject Activists\u2019 Claim Israel Cloud Deal Causes Harm)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Arkansas Times sued, but a district judge dismissed the case in 2019. A divided panel reversed the ruling and brought it before a full appeals court, page 3 of the court opinion <a href=\"https:\/\/ecf.ca8.uscourts.gov\/opndir\/22\/06\/191378P.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">shows<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe consider being banned from doing business with our state government for refusing to sign a pledge not to boycott Israel a ridiculous government overreach that has nothing to do with Arkansas,\u201d said Leveritt. \u201cMore importantly, in our particular case it requires the Arkansas Times to take a political position in return for advertising.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe hope and expect that the Supreme Court will set things right and reaffirm the nation\u2019s historic commitment to providing robust protection to political boycotts,\u201d Brian Hauss, senior staff attorney for the ACLU, <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/middle-east-israel-boycotts-arkansas-government-and-politics-514cac508c401a86393705c7142aa1b0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">told<\/a> The Associated Press.<\/p>\n<p>Some 30 states have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org\/anti-bds-legislation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">adopted<\/a> similar legislation to the Arkansas bill as a way of containing the Boycott, Divestment (BDS) and Sanctions movement that advocates for cutting off Israel economically, according to the Jewish Virtual Library. Federal legislation against boycotting Israel has <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2019\/01\/07\/rubio-bds-movement-sanders-tlaib\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">stalled<\/a> in Congress.<\/p>\n<p>Ben &#038; Jerry\u2019s, a popular ice cream company, faced widespread <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/07\/20\/united-states-state-department-rejects-bds-movement-ben-and-jerrys-israel-ban\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">criticism<\/a> in 2021 when it stopped selling its products in parts of Israel, a decision the BDS movement endorsed.<\/p>\n<p>The University of Arkansas Pulaski Technical College did not respond to TheDCNF\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact <a href=\"mailto:licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org\">licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A federal appeals court overruled a plea to overturn the state\u2019s anti-Israel boycott legislation Wednesday, a ruling defendants now hope to bring before the Supreme Court.The 8th Circuit Court ruled<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":899,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1527058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1527058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/899"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1527058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1527058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1527058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1527058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1527058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}