Summary
The Little Rock newspaper whose 2018 lawsuit against the state of Arkansas over its anti-boycott law produced, in Kenney-Shawa’s brief, the highest-level US court ruling on anti-boycott legislation as of 2022 — the Eighth Circuit’s decision against the newspaper (lines 143, 177, 211).
Details
- In 2018 the newspaper sued the state of Arkansas after an advertising contract with a public university was withdrawn as punishment for refusing to relinquish its right to boycott Israel; in the Eighth Circuit section the counterparty is named as the University of Arkansas, and the condition as signing a pledge not to boycott Israel to maintain the contract (lines 143, 211).
- The suit was initially dismissed; a three-judge panel of the Eighth Circuit overturned the dismissal, finding the statute “imposes a condition on government contractors that implicates their First Amendment rights”; the full court then reheard the case and ruled against the newspaper in June 2022, holding the act of boycotting itself to be “non-expressive” conduct outside First Amendment protection (lines 211-213).
- The ruling is binding on Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota, and the brief expects the issue to move to the Supreme Court (lines 143, 169).
Related pages
Challenging Anti-Boycott Legislation in the US, Anti-boycott legislation, NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co., Eighth Circuit