Texas, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Florida, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arkansas, Minnesota, Nevada, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Kansas, North Carolina, Utah, Missouri, Idaho, West Virginia, Colorado, Mississippi and New Hampshire.
You can act and voice your opinion as a private citizen, even if you own a business or work for the government. The law affects state funding from businesses that boycott investments.
The state may not penalize people for free speech. Are you arguing that exempting people from state work for exercising protected free speech does not count as penalizing?
... exempting people from state work for exercising protected free speech ...
that's not correct, you are still allowed to have a voice as an individual.
However it does prevent you or your highest level boss from speaking positively about BDS using their company (and companies are people).
ALSO it puts pressure on the work environment to not be out of line and talk about it.
The Citizens United vs FEC states clearly and unambiguously that a business is to be treated as an individual where Constitutional rights are concerned. That ruling was a pretty big deal, I’m surprised you didn’t know about it.