Judge: Ga. law barring contracts by groups boycotting Israel unconstitutional

A federal judge ruled against a Georgia law passed in 2016 that limits business with individuals or companies engaging in boycotts against Israel.

U.S. District Court Judge Mark H. Cohen on Friday issued his findings about the state law in an ongoing lawsuit by documentary filmmaker/journalist Abby Martin against Georgia Southern University officials and University System of Georgia Chancellor Steve Wrigley.

Martin sued Georgia Southern last year after officials there asked her to sign paperwork agreeing not to support a boycott of Israel before making a speech at a conference on its Savannah campus for a $1,000 honorarium, which they said was required by the current law. Martin, who works with Palestinian rights organizations, refused to sign the paperwork. The conference was canceled.

“The requirement contained in (the Georgia law) 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,” Cohen wrote.

More than 30 states have laws, executive orders or resolutions on the books to discourage boycotts against Israel. The measures were passed in response to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions academic and cultural movement that began a few years earlier to protest Israel’s occupation of land in the region. Georgia was among the first states to enact such a law, which passed along party lines in the Republican-controlled Legislature.

The defendants filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. Cohen on Friday issued a ruling removing three university Conference Services employees as defendants in the case but denying the larger motion to dismiss.

A spokeswoman for the Georgia Attorney General’s office, which represented the defendants, said Monday it was unable to comment at this time. Their attorneys have argued the law narrowly defines a boycott of any actions intended to limit commercial relations with Israel. They’ve said the law “does not infringe on First Amendment speech or expression.”

Martin said in a statement she was thrilled with the judge’s decision.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, which has backed Martin in the legal dispute, called the judge’s decision “a major victory” during a Facebook briefing Monday afternoon with supporters.