Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Lawsuit targets boycott ban
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Maryland’s ban on contracting with businesses that boycott Israel tramples on the First Amendment rights of a software engineer who advocates for Palestinians, a Muslim civil-rights group claimed in a lawsuit filed Wednesday.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations’ federal lawsuit seeks to block the state from enforcing an executive order that Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan signed in October 2017.
The order requires contractors to certify in writing that they don’t boycott Israel. The group’s suit claims the order has an unconstitutional chilling effect on First Amendment-protected political advocacy supporting the Palestinians.
The group says 25 other states have enacted measures similar to Maryland’s, through legislation or executive orders. Council attorney Gadeir Abbas said other federal lawsuits have challenged measures in Arkansas, Arizona, Kansas and Texas.
The group sued Hogan and state Attorney General Brian Frosh on behalf of software engineer Syed Saqib Ali, a former state legislator. Ali’s lawsuit says the order bars him from bidding for government software program contracts because he supports boycotts of businesses and organizations that “contribute to the oppression of Palestinians.”
“Speech and advocacy related to the Israel-Palestine conflict is core political speech on a matter of public concern entitled to the highest levels of constitutional protection,” the suit says.
Raquel Coombs, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said the attorney general doesn’t comment on pending litigation. A spokesman for Hogan’s office said, “We are confident that our executive order is completely consistent with the First Amendment and will be upheld in court.”
Ali served as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from 2007 to 2011 as a Democrat. He accused Hogan, a Republican, of making an “end around” the Legislature by signing the executive order after lawmakers repeatedly rejected several “anti-BDS” bills targeting the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.