Federal court strikes down Georgia’s anti-BDS law
(JTA) — A federal court struck down a Georgia state law that required contractors with the state to swear not to boycott Israel, the latest in a series of legal defeats for an anti-boycott campaign that pressed hard for laws targeting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
“The requirement … that parties seeking to contract with the state of Georgia sign a certification that they are not engaged in a boycott of Israel also is unconstitutional compelled speech,” said the ruling filed Friday by Mark Cohen, a U.S. District Court judge in Atlanta.
Cohen was ruling on a lawsuit brought by Abby Martin, a journalist who is harshly critical of Israel and embraces BDS. In 2019, Georgia Southern University had invited Martin to be the keynote speaker at a media conference for a $1,000 honorarium, then withdrew the invitation when she would not sign a contract swearing off BDS, as required by state law passed in 2017.
The ruling was the latest blow to a surge in anti-BDS laws passed with the help of a number of pro-Israel groups, particularly Christian pro-Israel groups, in the middle of the last decade. In addition to Georgia, courts in Arizona, Kansas, Texas and Arkansas have ruled anti-BDS laws unconstitutional.
Civil liberty groups have mounted legal challenges to the laws. Martin was joined in her lawsuit by a number of organizations opposed to anti-BDS legislation, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations, J Street, the rabbinical human rights group T’ruah and the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law School.
“My First Amendment rights were restricted on behalf of a foreign government, which flies in the face of the principles of freedom and democracy,” Martin said.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
