Senate Bill 1 a slap at free speech

The US Senate used its symbolic first bill of the 116th Congress to attack the First Amendment right of free speech. The primary aim of Sen. Marco Rubio's S.1 - Strengthening America's Security in the Middle East Act of 2019, is designed instead to strengthen the ability of states to pass laws giving explicit legal authority to boycott any U.S. companies which themselves are participating in a boycott against Israel. Twenty-six states have already passed such laws with similar laws pending in 13 more. How onerous can such laws be? Bahia Amawi, a Texas elementary school speech pathologist lost her job for refusing to sign a loyalty oath promising not to support a boycott of Israel over their illegal settlements on Palestinian land. Such loyalty oaths hearken back to the 1950's McCarthy era and have no place in any country that proclaims the sanctity of free speech. Federal judges in Arizona and Kansas have already knocked out two such laws as unconstitutional. The Kansas court declared " The Supreme Court has held that the First Amendment protects the right to participate in a boycott like the one punished by the Kansas law.” The Arizona court agreed stating: “A restriction of one’s ability to participate in collective calls to oppose Israel unquestionably burdens the protected expression of companies wishing to engage in such a boycott." Sadly, Rubio's bill is bi-partisan, with enough Democratic supporters to override a filibuster. Knee jerk support for the US Israel Lobby should not include trashing the First Amendment. S.1 should be consigned to the trash bin of legislation degrading American ideals.