NJ: If you refuse doing business with Israel, for political reasons, NJ will . . .

[TheBlackAdder]

Last edited Tue Jun 14, 2016, 06:07 PM - Edit history (1)

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I received this in my in-box... It supposedly passed the NJ Senate unanimously, and it's on its way to the Assembly.

The NJ Assembly is about to vote on a bill that punishes people for their political opinions. If it becomes law, the state will investigate and divest from any company that doesn’t do business with Israel for political reasons.

This is not about the conflict in the Middle East; this is about the fundamental right to protest. This bill sets a dangerous precedent for all those with opinions the Legislature doesn't like.

Under the bill, government investigators will be directed to sniff out whether a company's motivation for not investing in Israel is political or merely financial. Only outspoken companies will be punished and put on a blacklist.

The Star-Ledger opposed the bill and wrote a chilling editorial last week describing the dangers of the "thought police" this bill creates.

From the Civil Rights Movement to California grape pickers to apartheid South Africa, boycotts are part of our First Amendment heritage. Conducting investigations into political beliefs and punishing people based on their opinions violates our rights.

Let your lawmakers know that New Jerseyans who stand for the Constitution — no matter their political viewpoints — strongly reject S1923. If our legislators truly want to defend our most fundamental rights, they will reject this bill, too.

https://www.aclu.org/news/anti-boycott-bill-harms-free-speech-and-creates-blacklists-aclu-nj-tells-sponsors-legislation

Legislation to forbid the state’s investment in companies that boycott Israel would raise serious constitutional problems by harming free speech and using government resources to build political blacklists, the ACLU-NJ said in a letter expressing its strong opposition to the proposed law.

The bill, S1923/A925, prohibits the state’s pension and annuities funds from investing in any company that supports boycotts of Israel or Israeli businesses. The legislation mandates government investigations into people’s beliefs to determine if their reasons for not doing business with Israel are political and punishes people for holding unpopular opinions, stifling constitutionally protected speech.

“This bill singles people out for punishment based on their political opinions and beliefs, and that raises significant First Amendment concerns,” said ACLU-NJ Executive Director Udi Ofer. “This legislation requires that decisions about state investment be based on an ideological litmus test of companies. New Jersey should stay out of the business of building political blacklists and punishing unpopular opinions, regardless of what the controversy of the day may be. Government investigators shouldn’t be spying on New Jerseyans’ political beliefs to check if they match the political opinions of lawmakers.”
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The bill marks a departure from previous efforts to divest state funds from socially controversial companies, the ACLU-NJ’s letter emphasized. When the pension fund divested from apartheid-era South Africa, Sudan, or Iran, the state chose to penalize all firms that did business with those countries, placing the focus on their actions. In stark contrast, this legislation differentiates between companies that do not conduct business with Israel for political reasons and those that do not conduct business for all other reasons, punishing political speech and opinions specifically.

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/05/bill_cutting_pension_ties_with_businesses_boycotti.html

But Stephen Shalom from Jewish Voice for Peace argued the bill is "an affront to human rights and the First Amendment," and questioned how the state would go about determining a company's motivations.

"We're going to be setting up a database, an investigation into people's political views, and that is something that is contrary to the First Amendment," he said.

"Imagine if a Republican legislature passed a law saying that the state could only invest funds in companies whose officers agreed with the GOP platform," he continued. "Clearly that would be improper. But that's what's happening here. If you don't have the right political views, if your political motivations are not right, you will be penalized.

http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/06/nj_pro-israel_bills_take_big_brother_to_the_extrem.html

Supporters liken this to the movement to divest from firms doing business in South Africa during the apartheid regime. But there is a critical difference. Back then, state governments punished any business that dealt with the oppressive regime, no matter what the reason.

That approach would not work when it comes to the boycott of Israel, since most American firms don't do business there in the first place. So this legislation sets up an agency that can act as a kind of thought police to find out why a given company is not invested there. If it's for commercial reasons, that's fine. But if the motive is political, then the company would face these sanctions.

The problem is pretty easy to see: the legislation actually requires our state to hire outside investigators to probe the political motives of these companies. If their failure to invest in Israel is a form of protest, explicit or side-eyed, then they would go on the blacklist.

Discuss...


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