Arkansas Times wins challenge of state’s Israel boycott rule
Excerpt:
Big news today from the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The Arkansas Times, and the First Amendment, have prevailed in a lawsuit challenging the state law that prevents state business with those who won’t pledge not to boycott Israel.
A federal district court had dismissed our challenge, but the 8th Circuit, in a 2-1 decision, sent the case back to the district court.
The Times, represented by the ACLU, asked for an injunction against the law. We had never editorialized about Israel or the boycott but objected to being forced to sign a pledge about editorial content as a condition of doing business The case was over an advertising contract with the Pulaski Tech branch of the University of Arkansas. We lost an existing contract because we refused to sign a pledge.