States can’t punish businesses for boycotting Israel, federal judge in Arizona says

By Isaac Stanley-Becker
October 1 at 4:22 AM

Mikkel Jordahl, an attorney in Sedona, Ariz., can now choose to buy a different brand of printers.

No longer must he stick with Hewlett Packard technology for fear of losing his contract with the state. For 12 years, he has provided legal advice to inmates in the Coconino County Jail.

In his personal life, he avoids companies he views as complicit in Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories. His aim had been to extend his boycott to his one-person law office, for instance refusing to purchase from Hewlett Packard because its information technology services are used at Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank.

In his professional life, however, he was bound by a law, enacted by the Arizona legislature in 2016, requiring any business that enjoys a state contract to certify that it was not boycotting Israel. He challenged the directive in court, claiming that it violated his First Amendment rights.

A federal judge in Arizona found merit in his complaint. U.S. District Court Judge Diane Humetewa last week issued an injunction, blocking enforcement of the measure, which compels any business contracting with the state to submit a written pledge that it was not involved in boycott activity targeting Israel.

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