The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas filed a lawsuit against Attorney General Ken Paxton, two universities and two school districts Tuesday, claiming a 2017 state law that requires contractors to sign a pledge against boycotting Israel violates the Constitution by forcing workers to choose between their livelihoods and beliefs.

The ACLU suit comes one day after Bahia Amawi, a contracted speech pathologist for Pflugerville ISD, sued that school district for terminating her contract after she refused to certify that she would not boycott Israel. Amawi's case drew national attention and reignited conversations about whether boycotts are protected under the First Amendment.

In its complaint, the ACLU said Texas’ law goes far beyond unfairly punishing those involved with official boycott groups, affecting those who boycott Israel for personal reasons. It asks the court to declare the Texas law a violation of the First and 14th amendments and to bar the defendants from requiring contractors to certify that they will not boycott Israel.

John Pluecker, a freelance writer and translator who is one of the plaintiffs in the case, said he first learned of Texas’ anti-boycott law when he reviewed a contract sent by the University of Houston this spring. Pluecker has refused to buy products from the Sabra Dipping Co. to protest the company’s support of the Israel Defense Forces. He said he believed that action violated the anti-boycott clause, and he did not want to sign a document that he said endorsed denying people the right to boycott Israel. As a result, he refused a $1,500 contract and another $250 contract from UH.

“I’m a seventh-generation Texan, and I feel like it’s important to guarantee Texans have a right to make their own political or ethical decisions,” Pluecker said Tuesday. “The state doesn’t have business deciding what its residents can believe.”

ACLU of Texas Senior Staff Attorney Edgar Saldivar said the lawsuit is aimed more at the state than the two universities and two school districts it lists as defendants.

“It’s the state that passed this law that now requires all state agencies participate in a political litmus test,” Saldivar said. “Had this law not passed, you wouldn’t see UH as a party in this lawsuit.”

Texas is among more than a dozen states to pass laws limiting its business with companies that boycott or divest from Israeli companies, or companies housed in Israeli-controlled territories. Many of those laws were passed in reaction to a growing number of business leaders and individuals who said they no longer would financially support those within the Middle Eastern country over its government’s treatment of Palestinians and continued expansion into Palestinian-held territories.

Gov. Greg Abbott and other lawmakers trumpeted the 2017 statute, or House Bill 89, as a stand against official Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions, or BDS groups, that have targeted Israel.

“As Israel's No. 1 trading partner in the United States, Texas is proud to reaffirm its support for the people of Israel and we will continue to build on our historic partnership,” Abbott said after signing HB 89 into law. “Anti-Israel policies are anti-Texas policies, and we will not tolerate such actions against an important ally.”

Mike Rosen, executive director of media relations for the University of Houston system, said the clause remains in the school’s contracts for for-profit vendors due to the state law. However, after Paxton’s office provided additional guidance saying individual speakers were not required to sign the certification, the university changed that requirement.

Other examples included in the complaint: A Rice University PhD candidate had to forfeit payment after judging a Klein ISD debate tournament because he is involved with a divestment campaign against Israel; a reporter for Texas A&M Commerce's NPR affiliate signed a No Boycott of Israel certification against his conscious so he could keep his job; and a Palestinian-American student at Texas Tech could not judge high school debates in Lewisville ISD because he boycotts Israel.

In a statement, attorney general spokesman Marc Rylander said private citizens and companies have every right to express their views and to participate in boycotts.

“They do not, however, have a right to use their business activity with the state to make that statement,” Rylander wrote. “The taxpayers of Texas do not want their money used to marginalize and attack a key ally and trading partner of Texas, and they have said so at the ballot box. They, too, have the right to express their views."

Klein ISD officials said they have not yet been served with the suit and could not comment.

Amanda Brim, chief communications officer for Lewisville ISD, said the ACLU indicated the district is not the target of the lawsuit and that “the ACLU’s concern seems to be the law itself.”

Texas A&M University at Commerce did not respond to a request for comment.

Earlier this year, federal judges barred Arizona and Kansas from enforcing their versions of anti-boycott laws, according to the Arizona Republic and Wichita Eagle newspapers.

shelby.webb@chron.com

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