The National Lawyers Guild and Project South have filed an amicus brief in Arkansas Times, LP v. Mark Waldrip, et. al, challenging Arkansas’ Anti-BDS law. The case is on appeal to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. Such anti-boycott laws which trample upon the First Amendment have passed in dozens of states across the country and are being challenged in several places.

“We cannot allow laws that penalize US residents for their refusal to take loyalty oaths to the Apartheid state of Israel to stand,” said one of the authors of the brief, Azadeh Shahshahani, Project South Legal & Advocacy Director and NLG past president.

As the brief notes, “The district court’s application of contrary case law was incorrect, and in fact, controlling case law holds that political boycotts, such as the proscribed boycott of Israel, are protected by the Constitution. Therefore, this Court of Appeals must overturn the district court’s ruling and strike down Act 710 as unconstitutional.”

NLG members Amith Gupta, Jordan Kushner, Azadeh Shahshahani, and Reem Subei contributed to the brief.

Read the full motion to file here and amicus brief below.