The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a lawsuit against Texas’ anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement law in an April 11 ruling, concluding that the plaintiff did not have standing.
The plaintiff, Haseeb Abdullah, filed in the lawsuit in 2020 after Texas’ Employee Retirement System divested from a Norwegian company that boycotted Israel. Abdullah, who used to work for the state government and currently works in Travis County, has contributed to that retirement fund and will receive retirement benefits from it. Therefore, he argued in the lawsuit that he would suffer economic damage from the anti-BDS law. Abdullah also argued the anti-BDS law violated constitutional rights.
The court did not buy Abdullah’s arguments, concluding that Abdullah’s claim of future economic loss from the law is too “speculative” and that he did not show that the law in any way infringed upon his constitutional rights. Thus, the court upheld a lower court’s ruling that Abdullah did not have standing to sue.
“Texas’s anti-boycott law is both constitutional and, unfortunately, increasingly necessary as the radical left becomes increasingly hostile and antagonistic toward Israel,” Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) said in an April 18 statement. “Though some wish to get rid of the law and see Israel fail, the State of Texas will remain firm in our commitment to stand with Israel by refusing to do business with companies that boycott the only democratic nation in the Middle East. In this case, I’m pleased to see the court recognize that the plaintiff lacked any standing to bring this challenge. Thus, our important law remains in effect, and I will continue to defend it relentlessly.”
In January 2022, a separate lawsuit against the law resulted in a preliminary injunction being issued against it. Paxton appealed the injunction to the Fifth Circuit, which remains ongoing.
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