Definitely. Republicans are big fans of "let the market decide" and big opponents of "big government dictating what companies should do" until the market decides against them. Then, suddenly, the Republicans are big fans of the government deciding what companies should do and opponents of the free market.
The supposed love of free markets and things like "states rights" is just a cover for their racism and their greed and their insatiable desire to rule over others.
I am pretty sure this is pure virtue signaling that will be overturned. The article mentions that “Israel boycott” laws have been upheld, but I’m unsure of either the effectiveness of those laws (ie what has to be demonstrated if the entity doesn’t say they’re not entering a contract for political reasons but rather has another justification) or the applicability (since my guess is that the BDS stuff falls under some stretch of the government being the only entity allowed to effect foreign policy decisions, but I’m not sure of the actual legal basis and I’m too tired to research it at the moment).
It shows the right never cared about FREEZED PEACH. What they want is a platform like Xitter to be run by a twerp like Space Karen in such a way as to maximize liberal "ownage" and to platform Nazis, and, ideally, give people no way to completely opt out of their dreck.
Setting aside constitutional issues, think about how insane and delusional you have to be to decide that the fact that a significant number of people are protesting your policies means that protesting needs to be prohibited punished.
It doesn't prohibit protesting, it basically says that if you engage in "economic boycott" (a term which about a third of the bill is spent defining) then the State of Missouri cannot use you as a vendor, and any contracts with them are null and void.
So less prohibiting protesting and more not buying stuff from protesters. Probably still a 1A violation, though from an odd enough angle I'm not sure.
Wonder how that would work out given the number of firearms vendors that actively boycott liberal things like budlight. Police departments are going to be all outta ammo.
Well, according to the Citizens United decision, corporations are people and money is speech, so a company deciding with who they’re going to spend money is protected speech.
Sounds like the anti-BDS laws. Somehow that's a thing, and I'm not sure how that's even allowed.
Also, I was amused that BDS also stands for "Biden Derangement Syndrome". In the years before Denver Post closed their comments, they ramped their censorship way up and for some reason "BDS" would trigger their nanny-filter. I'm supposing even the mention of the boycott of Israel was bridge too far for the nannies at Denver Post.
"Well, it brings the subject into view and we hate hearing about it (cry harder, libs!) so we'll just stop people from doing the thing that brings it into view and annoys us." - conservative snowflakes, probably
"No one should be forced to bake a cake for a gay wedding." "No company should be allowed to refuse to give another company millions of dollars a month in advertising income just because they began vocally supporting nazism"
These are two thoughts that simultaneously bounce around in GOP politicians' heads. They seem to be contradictory ideas until you realize that they are simply ALWAYS in favor of harming the right people and do not give the slightest shit about applying the same rules to everyone if those rules harm the wrong people.
The only principle the GOP has is whatever they think will win them the current argument. Asking for any ideological consistency from them is tilting at windmills.
“No company should be allowed to refuse to give another company millions of dollars a month in advertising income just because they began vocally supporting nazism”
This bill doesn't do that. It just says that if you engage in "economic boycott" (which about a third of the bill is spent defining, but doesn't include refusing to deal with a company for "vocally supporting nazism" unless you are using very nonstandard definitions of "vocally supporting" and "nazism"), the State of Missouri cannot use you as a vendor.
I'll grant you the bill does not restrict economic boycott against nazism per se. It does restrict vendor economic boycott against use of fossil fuels, deforestation, strip mining, anything to do with firearms, failing to meet greenhouse gas emissions standards, refusing to provide employees with insurance that covers abortion or gender reaffirming care, grossly underpays their employees, refuses to put non-whites on the board or their employee payroll, etc. If your company decides to switch providers of a good or service, end advertisement deals, or no longer sell to a company, the decision to do so better not involve those things at all, or you lose the ability to gain or keep state government contracts.
Notably, all these disqualifying boycotts are things that a left-leaning company might engage in. They do not disqualify company's that boycott for right-leaning reason though. Like companies that provide abortion or gender affirming care to their employees, companies with diversity requirements on their staff/boards, companies that scale the lowest wages to the board's wages, companies that are unionized or employee owned, companies that advocate against or provide alternatives to fossil fuels, companies that advocate against deforestation, fracking, or firearms.
The bill would allow them to using vendors that boycott Planned Parenthood over abortion services but disallow them to use vendors that boycott BP over anothet major oil spill. Feel free to punish the left for practicing their values and continue to practice your own right leaning values without worrying about losing your government contracts. Apparently it's okay to disqualify left-leaning boycotts, but not right-leaning boycotts. You do see how blatantly biased and anti-1st amendment that is, right?
Except that they can pass the bill, and enforce the bill, and the legislation stays active and in place until someone with standing files suit, goes to court (taking on the time and money expense of doing so), goes through the appeals process (and we know that the State could also appeal, so either way it goes), on and on until it gets to SCOTUS. All of which can take years, during which unconstitutional fuckery is foisted upon the good citizens of Missouri.
This is the standard that's been set: do whatever the fuck you want, and abuse the judiciary to get away with it as long as possible.
...and what that case will end up looking like is a company suing Missouri because Missouri won't buy shit from them because they in turn won't buy shit from companies that...aren't carbon neutral, or also work with the timber industry, or don't have enough PoC on their corporate boards, or w/e.
Last i checked there's already a law like this in Texas that forbids businesses who work with the state from boycotting Israel, oil and gas companies, or gun rights groups
It's a stalling tactic that all these Red States keep using to enact something clearly in violation of The US Constitution and provisions, so they can wait out the time until the case is taken by a superior court. https://www.txcourts.gov/supreme/case-summaries/
If a legislator tries to pass something so blatantly obviously against the constitution, they should be thrown in jail and barred from ever writing another law again.
Yes, I know that'd put a lot of politicians in jail. Doesn't that put a smile on your face, too?
A lot of people in the comments are saying how this won't hold up or how unconstitutional it is but 35 fucking states have already passed anti-bds (boycotts, divestment*, and sanctions) laws that do the same thing as this bill but Israel. If the politicians are sufficiently bribed enough, they won't care what the laws actually are.
Yeah, that's already a thing. New York, California, Florida, Missouri, and Illinois enforced their anti-boycott laws in 2018 against Airbnb when Airbnb said they would remove Israeli listings that were in areas where the land was taken from people. Airbnb stood to be completely forbidden from the largest economic markets in the United States at the behest of the Israeli strategic affairs minister Gilad Erdan.
There's been challenges to these kinds of laws like Arkansas Times LP v. Waldrip, but the State upheld the Legislation and SCOTUS refused to hear the case letting stand Arkansas' ability to force all companies operating within the State to "stand with Israel" or face removal from any State program and anyone whom they did business with removal from State funds. Because that's what happened with the Newspaper. The Newspaper itself had no contracts with the State, but those who advertised might and they would be prohibited from purchasing ad space in the newspaper.
There's Jordahl v. Brnovich where a lawyer was providing legal services in Coconino County, Arizona and was found by Arizona's anti-boycott law with regards to Israel. Eventually appellate courts sided with the lawyer that such a ban on boycott's was against the State's Constitution, but Legislators eventually carved out an exception for legal firms and rendered all further cases moot before it could make it to the Supreme Court of Arizona.
There's Martin v. Wrigley where a filmmaker would not sign a pledge for State film making funding that they would not "boycott Israel" per the State of Georgia's anti-boycott laws. In the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, the court ruled that the law was compelled speech. The State then amended the law to not apply to businesses under $100,000 rendering any final challenge moot. And any losses were indemnified as the State of Georgia claimed qualified immunity. In appeals, the Eleventh Circuit in a per curium that was unpublished affirmed the lower court's ruling but did not rule on the full Constitutionality of the law. The Eleventh dropped the case completely in June of 2023.
There's Koontz v. Watson where a Mennonite church boycotted Israel and the State of Kansas required a math teacher who was a member of that church to sign an affidavit that she did not boycott Israel before she could attend a required teaching seminar. That one went really complicated, very long story short, the State carved out an exception in HB 2482 and the court's dismissed the matter as moot. The Teacher was allowed to attend the training.
And I could go on and on and on, because at the State level there are several legal challenges in pretty much every State to the various State laws that prohibit boycotting Israel. So yeah, on this "it's already a thing" pretty much everywhere and we are nowhere near through enough court cases to get some final resolution on these kinds of "you cannot boycott Israel" laws. They're likely going to be around for another ten to twenty years if we just keep chipping away at them via legal challenges.
And that's likely the success that Missouri is trying to get with this law. Get a good solid thirty or so years out of "you cannot boycott conservative values" and seed things into a new generation by force, since allowing people to measure these conservative values by their own accord isn't working. But yeah, if this law passes, it's golden for at least three decades or enough of Missouri's Assembly changes to remove the law.
It doesn't actually, the law is written specifically to disallow people from boycotting companies that destroy the environment, hate LGBTQ, actively promote anti-LGBTQ ideals, etc., but it DOESN'T stop the alternate -- the right can still boycott people who support LGBTQ rights, people who support working to fight climate change, etc. Just another one-sided law attempting to illegalize entirely legal business decisions by the left while allowing the right to continue saying it's OK to deny people wedding cakes if you hate the gays.
I figured as much. When people (or companies) say "I don't want to be associated with statements like this," the right's response depends on whose statements they are. If they are statements from the right, then it's "cancel culture" and must be banned. If they are statements from the left, then it's just Free Speech and no action against those saying it is allowed for any reason.
the law is written specifically to disallow people from boycotting companies that destroy the environment, hate LGBTQ, actively promote anti-LGBTQ ideals, etc., but it DOESN'T stop the alternate
That's correct! The law is written to be non-commutative. That is it works one way, but the lack of indicating the other, implicitly indicates that it is not true. Here are the sections from the bill.
(a) Engages in the exploration, production, utilization, transportation, sale, or manufacturing of, fossil fuel-based energy, timber, mining, or agriculture;
(b) Engages in, facilitates, or supports the manufacture, import, distribution, marketing or advertising, sale, or lawful use of firearms, ammunition or component parts and accessories of firearms or ammunition;
(c) Does not meet, is not expected to meet, or does not commit to meet environmental standards or disclosure criteria, in particular to eliminate, reduce, offset, or disclose greenhouse gas emissions;
(d) Does not meet, is not expected to meet, or does not commit to meet any specified criteria with respect to the compensation and composition of the company's corporate board and the employees of the company;
(e) Does not facilitate, is not expected to facilitate, or does not commit to facilitate access to abortion, sex or gender change, or transgender surgery or medical treatments;
As you can see they are worded to have meaning in a single direction but aren't reflexive in language. So this allows people to boycott the opposite of the above, but prohibits boycotting anything above.
It's literally a law compelling conservative belief. And they know it's not going to survive a legal challenge, but they also know they'll get something like two or three decades out it before being completely overturned. It's literally a legislative Hail, Mary.
Conservatism is not a protected class. It is perfectly legal to discriminate against someone based on their political orientation.
We have a moral duty to not engage in business with bigots, misogynists, homophobes, transphobes, xenophobes, antisemites and racists. Conservatism should be openly excluded from polite society without fear. It is the moral thing to do.
Even if this somehow passed... from a business perspective: Pull out of Missouri and stop offering services to 6 million people, or tell tens or hundreds of millions of other people that you're supporting hate speech? Hmm..
The headline is very misleading. This law would just stop them from getting contracts from the state. They could still do business in the state.
The bill, Senate Bill 1061, would ban companies doing business with the state from engaging in “economic boycotts” over a large list of issues, including transgender care and abortion.
If you're not doing business with the state, it doesn't impact you at all.
These laws never seem to backfire because for them to backfire, the left would have to start using all of the loopholes that the right have put in place, and for some reason the left continues to act like they're "better than that" as the entire country devolves into fascism. I hope they sleep well at night when they say "well we may have lost our country to fascist dictators, but we didn't break a single rule on the way!"
Just look at the gerrymandering in this country and how it wholly benefits the conservatives and you'll realize the democrats are wholly incapable of even stressing against the rules, even to save our country from people who are actively working to destroy our freedom and our rights. We're never going to beat the opposition when the opposition cheats at every turn and we obey all the rules. It's a losing game and there's no ethical silver bullet that we can say we upheld when our country is overtaken by immoral and deceitful thieves.
The headline is misleading. According to the text of the article, the law actually only bans companies that do business with the state from engaging in such boycotts. If you're company refuses to give ad money to Musk, then you don't get any state contracts.
I doubt the law is unconstitutional, but it is pretty stupid. Larger companies that care about their image enough to refuse to advertise on hate filled networks are also going to be the companies that provide the best services at the best prices. The state would be stuck using smaller companies that would charge them more and provide lower quality services.
Compelled speech is a first amendment violation. Telling a company they need to take positive political action to score a state contract is undoubtedly a violation of the 1st.
Not only is the law definitely unconstitutional, it's virtually unenforceable. A company can easily make a statement that they refuse to give money to another company for endless reasons. It's just hollow virtue signalling, something conservatives excel at.
a) Directly environmentally destructive companies
b) Gun-related companies
c) Companies that refuse to do anything about their global warming emissions
d) Companies that make racist and/or sexist promotion decisions
e) Medical companies that refuse to provide full reproductive and/or trans care
f) Companies that do business with any of the above
Nice list of priorities. You can boycott a company for trying to fix the environment but not for destroying it. You can boycott a company for trying to prevent gun violence but not for promoting it. You can boycott a company for trying to help fight against global warming but not for contributing to it. You can boycott a company for fighting against racism and sexism but not for enforcing it. You can boycott a company for providing reproductive or trans care but not for refusing to.
Wait, you're telling me that this is a one-sided law made in bad faith to illegalize behavior that's 100% constitutionally protected but that negatively impacts the conservative right while still allowing actions that negatively impact the left? Say it ain't so.
Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect." - Frank Wilhoit
FYI there's already a law in Texas that does this. State agencies cannot do business with companies that boycott Israel, oil and gas companies, or gun industry and rights groups
State agencies cannot do business with companies that boycott
Missorui's law says businesses cannot do business with other businesses that boycott yatta yatta. That's a bit of a departure from Texas's law (which is also braindead).
What's the outrage here, that a State Government can make rules on who they will or won't do business with? That's all this Bill is looking to do. If a company wants to do business with the State of Missouri then they can't economically boycott other companies in a handful of industries that Conservatives care about. If a company doesn't do business with the State of Missouri then this law won't apply.
Politically motivated rules controlling Government spending exist at all levels from Federal down through Municipal. Money is power and Politicians are always willing to flex.