(WASHINGTON D.C., 6/24/2022) – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today welcomed amicus (friend of the court) briefs filed in support of CAIR’s challenge to Texas’s anti-BDS law. Those briefs were filed earlier this week. 

Earlier this year, United States District Judge Andrew S. Hanen granted an injunction that blocked Texas from enforcing the anti-boycott law against Rasmy Hassouna, a Palestinian-American from Gaza whose engineering firm has worked with the City of Houston for almost 20 years and who refused to sign an anti-BDS loyalty oath to Israel as a condition of his company’s contract with the City of Houston.  

Last week, CAIR filed its brief on behalf of A&R Engineering, the firm owned by Hassouna. 

SEE: Texas law barring state contractors from boycotting Israel violates firm’s free speech, federal judge rules 

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/01/31/texas-boycott-israel-lawsuit/

SEE: ‘I thought I was a free man’: the engineer fighting Texas’s ban on boycotting Israel 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/07/texas-ban-boycotting-israel

Earlier this week, in a different case about a similar law in Arkansas, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the law to stand. 

SEE: CAIR Says ‘Outlier’ Arkansas BDS Ruling Endangers Free Speech, Welcomes Dissenting Opinion 

Arkansas Times loses challenge of state’s Israel boycott law 

Organizations from across the political spectrum have come together in support of the First Amendment and against the government’s attempt to create a Palestine-exception to the First Amendment.  

• The Center for Constitutional Rights and Palestine Legal filed a brief detailing how anti-BDS laws interfere with people’s freedom to “organiz[e] their economic power to end discriminatory treatment or injustice.”  

• T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights and J Street joined in to affirm CAIR’s argument defending the right of Americans to use boycotts to express themselves. In their brief, T’ruah and J Street called protected expressive activity such as boycotts a “crucial safeguard for minority groups and viewpoints.”  

• A group of 17 Jewish scholars filed to explain how figures and organizations opposed to the BDS movement have “attempted to stigmatize and suppress criticism of Israel by redefining the concept of antisemitism to include most or all such criticism. 

• The ACLU wrote to emphasize the constitutional protections for not only the speech that accompanies a boycott but also the boycott itself. “[T]he concerted actions involved in assembling to join and engage in boycott activity for the purpose of expressing certain political views, advocating for social change, or seeking redress from government are inextricably bound with the right of free speech.” 

READ THE ACLU’S BRIEF READ CCR AND PALESTINE LEGAL’S BRIEF 
READ PROFESSOR LAWRENCE GLICKMAN’S BRIEF 
READ T’RUAH AND J STREET’S BRIEF 
READ THE JEWISH SCHOLARS’ BRIEF 
READ THE RUTHERFORD INSTITUTE’S BRIEF

Additional amici included Jewish Voice for Peace, the Knight First Amendment Institute, and the Israel Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church, among others.

CAIR’s mission is to protect civil rights, enhance understanding of Islam, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.            

La misión de CAIR es proteger las libertades civiles, mejorar la comprensión del Islam, promover la justicia, y empoderar a los musulmanes en los Estados Unidos.

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CONTACT: CAIR National Litigation Director Lena Masri, 202-642-4934, lmasri@cair.com; CAIR Senior Litigation Attorney Gadeir Abbas, 720-251-0425, gabbas@cair.com; CAIR Trial Attorney Justin Sadowsky, 202-752-6440, jsadowsky@cair.com