The legal fine print of anti-BDS laws in the US
The legal fine print of anti-BDS laws in the US
Obviously fuck these laws. And even if these laws state that universities cannot legally divest, they should divest anyway and say 'fuck you, take me to court'--but, with that aside, what are the actual details of these laws?
I know it varies state to state, but in PA, for example, where the UPenn encampment was raided this morning, the university says "Penn remains unequivocally opposed to divestment, and it is unlawful for institutions receiving funding from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania."
From what I can tell, there's just a 2016 law that states that the government of PA essentially can't do business with entities that have divested from Israel--but how does that legally prevent the entity from actually doing so on their part?
I keep seeing this claim that "It's illegal to divest, so we as a university can't do so. Tough luck." Not only is it ethically BS, but it seems to be a straight up lie, too?
I read that first as anti-BDSM law and thought to myself, 'American puritanism really is wild, huh?
I wonder if keeping one penny stock in some shitty Israeli startup that does nothing would be enough to circumvent anti-BDS laws in the technical sense?
I know that not a single cent should go to Israel but if they're going to make it legally impossible to not be a part of BDS or they're using that to hide behind policy then it seems logical to be like "Um no, Sweaty, we don't participate in BDS - we own 3 shares in a startup named Tel Aviv New Horizon Pet Cryogenics."
I think it would be a good one for case law, speaking as a layperson, because what are they going to do about it - mandate the minimum amount of business that people must necessarily engage in with Israel or something? It's hard to imagine that would hold up on court.
What will happen is the judge will say: "You are de facto divesting, therefore you're in violation of the law. Next!"
Contrary to popular belief, judges aren't robots, and they're given broad power to do basically whatever the fresh fuck they want. Don't like it? Sue us again in the next level up court. Don't like it? Sue us again in the next level up court, you foolish plebeians.
And if you get all the way to the Supreme Court, they might decide they don't give a shit. Case closed. It's the law now. Next!
I've read PA's amendments to their state contractor procurement law, aka the anti-BDS statute in PA. Unless PA gives institutional grants to UPenn under "procurement" process then they're completely full of shit. If they are contracting with some part of UPenn for research or something then whatever, just have the Penn researchers work with a university somewhere else. It's fucking inane and almost certainly complete bullshit.
Unless PA gives institutional grants to UPenn under "procurement" process then they're completely full of shit.
What would this entail if that were the case?
In communist China, universities are legally required to use student funds to invest in Uyghur genocide and if the students protest this they get expelled and lose social credit.
oh you don't like israel? well in this free market society you vote with your wallet, so if YOU don't like israel, feel free to show that with your individualism
"ok"
...
it is now illegal to vote with your wallet
