The U.S. House scrapped a bill that would have criminalized anti-Israel boycotts.
The bill generated several criticisms for infringing upon the First Amendment.
“H.R. 867, up for a vote tomorrow, aims to curb antisemitism but threatens First Amendment rights,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) said before the bill was removed. “Americans have the right to boycott, and penalizing this risks free speech. I reject and vehemently condemn antisemitism but I cannot violate the first amendment.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) similar said she would vote “no” on the bill, declaring that is her duty to “defend American’s rights to buy or boycott whomever they choose without the government harshly fining them or imprisoning them.”
Greene said in a subsequent post that the House should “vote on the promises we made the American people, the agenda that gave us the historic victory in November 2024, President Trump’s EOs, and make DOGE cuts permanent with recessions!!!”
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) celebrated the bill’s removal from the schedule, calling it a “ridiculous” measure that “our leadership should have never scheduled for a vote.”
The bill, introduced by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) sought to expand “an existing anti-boycott law to include certain boycotts imposed by international governmental organizations (IGOs).”
“Current law prohibits various actions by U.S. persons (individuals or entities) in relation to boycotts imposed by foreign governments on a country which is friendly to the United States and that is not itself the object of a U.S. boycott,” a bill summary states. “This bill applies those prohibitions to similar boycotts imposed by IGOs.”
