Setting aside constitutional issues, think about how insane and delusional you have to be to decide that the fact that a significant number of people are protesting your policies means that protesting needs to be prohibited punished.
"Well, it brings the subject into view and we hate hearing about it (cry harder, libs!) so we'll just stop people from doing the thing that brings it into view and annoys us." - conservative snowflakes, probably
It doesn’t prohibit protesting, it basically says that if you engage in “economic boycott” (a term which about a third of the bill is spent defining) then the State of Missouri cannot use you as a vendor, and any contracts with them are null and void.
So less prohibiting protesting and more not buying stuff from protesters. Probably still a 1A violation, though from an odd enough angle I’m not sure.
Wonder how that would work out given the number of firearms vendors that actively boycott liberal things like budlight. Police departments are going to be all outta ammo.
Well, according to the Citizens United decision, corporations are people and money is speech, so a company deciding with who they’re going to spend money is protected speech.
Sounds like the anti-BDS laws. Somehow that’s a thing, and I’m not sure how that’s even allowed.
Also, I was amused that BDS also stands for “Biden Derangement Syndrome”. In the years before Denver Post closed their comments, they ramped their censorship way up and for some reason “BDS” would trigger their nanny-filter. I’m supposing even the mention of the boycott of Israel was bridge too far for the nannies at Denver Post.
The headline is misleading. According to the text of the article, the law actually only bans companies that do business with the state from engaging in such boycotts. If you’re company refuses to give ad money to Musk, then you don’t get any state contracts.
I doubt the law is unconstitutional, but it is pretty stupid. Larger companies that care about their image enough to refuse to advertise on hate filled networks are also going to be the companies that provide the best services at the best prices. The state would be stuck using smaller companies that would charge them more and provide lower quality services.
Compelled speech is a first amendment violation. Telling a company they need to take positive political action to score a state contract is undoubtedly a violation of the 1st.
Not only is the law definitely unconstitutional, it’s virtually unenforceable. A company can easily make a statement that they refuse to give money to another company for endless reasons. It’s just hollow virtue signalling, something conservatives excel at.
FYI there's already a law in Texas that does this. State agencies cannot do business with companies that boycott Israel, oil and gas companies, or gun industry and rights groups
State agencies cannot do business with companies that boycott
Missorui's law says businesses cannot do business with other businesses that boycott yatta yatta. That's a bit of a departure from Texas's law (which is also braindead).
It doesn't actually, the law is written specifically to disallow people from boycotting companies that destroy the environment, hate LGBTQ, actively promote anti-LGBTQ ideals, etc., but it DOESN'T stop the alternate -- the right can still boycott people who support LGBTQ rights, people who support working to fight climate change, etc. Just another one-sided law attempting to illegalize entirely legal business decisions by the left while allowing the right to continue saying it's OK to deny people wedding cakes if you hate the gays.
I figured as much. When people (or companies) say “I don’t want to be associated with statements like this,” the right’s response depends on whose statements they are. If they are statements from the right, then it’s “cancel culture” and must be banned. If they are statements from the left, then it’s just Free Speech and no action against those saying it is allowed for any reason.
the law is written specifically to disallow people from boycotting companies that destroy the environment, hate LGBTQ, actively promote anti-LGBTQ ideals, etc., but it DOESN'T stop the alternate
That's correct! The law is written to be non-commutative. That is it works one way, but the lack of indicating the other, implicitly indicates that it is not true. Here are the sections from the bill.
(a) Engages in the exploration, production, utilization, transportation, sale, or manufacturing of, fossil fuel-based energy, timber, mining, or agriculture;
(b) Engages in, facilitates, or supports the manufacture, import, distribution, marketing or advertising, sale, or lawful use of firearms, ammunition or component parts and accessories of firearms or ammunition;
(c) Does not meet, is not expected to meet, or does not commit to meet environmental standards or disclosure criteria, in particular to eliminate, reduce, offset, or disclose greenhouse gas emissions;
(d) Does not meet, is not expected to meet, or does not commit to meet any specified criteria with respect to the compensation and composition of the company's corporate board and the employees of the company;
(e) Does not facilitate, is not expected to facilitate, or does not commit to facilitate access to abortion, sex or gender change, or transgender surgery or medical treatments;
As you can see they are worded to have meaning in a single direction but aren't reflexive in language. So this allows people to boycott the opposite of the above, but prohibits boycotting anything above.
It's literally a law compelling conservative belief. And they know it's not going to survive a legal challenge, but they also know they'll get something like two or three decades out it before being completely overturned. It's literally a legislative Hail, Mary.
“No one should be forced to bake a cake for a gay wedding.” “No company should be allowed to refuse to give another company millions of dollars a month in advertising income just because they began vocally supporting nazism”
These are two thoughts that simultaneously bounce around in GOP politicians’ heads. They seem to be contradictory ideas until you realize that they are simply ALWAYS in favor of harming the right people and do not give the slightest shit about applying the same rules to everyone if those rules harm the wrong people.
The only principle the GOP has is whatever they think will win them the current argument. Asking for any ideological consistency from them is tilting at windmills.
“No company should be allowed to refuse to give another company millions of dollars a month in advertising income just because they began vocally supporting nazism”
This bill doesn’t do that. It just says that if you engage in “economic boycott” (which about a third of the bill is spent defining, but doesn’t include refusing to deal with a company for “vocally supporting nazism” unless you are using very nonstandard definitions of “vocally supporting” and “nazism”), the State of Missouri cannot use you as a vendor.
I’ll grant you the bill does not restrict economic boycott against nazism per se. It does restrict vendor economic boycott against use of fossil fuels, deforestation, strip mining, anything to do with firearms, failing to meet greenhouse gas emissions standards, refusing to provide employees with insurance that covers abortion or gender reaffirming care, grossly underpays their employees, refuses to put non-whites on the board or their employee payroll, etc. If your company decides to switch providers of a good or service, end advertisement deals, or no longer sell to a company, the decision to do so better not involve those things at all, or you lose the ability to gain or keep state government contracts.
Notably, all these disqualifying boycotts are things that a left-leaning company might engage in. They do not disqualify company’s that boycott for right-leaning reason though. Like companies that provide abortion or gender affirming care to their employees, companies with diversity requirements on their staff/boards, companies that scale the lowest wages to the board’s wages, companies that are unionized or employee owned, companies that advocate against or provide alternatives to fossil fuels, companies that advocate against deforestation, fracking, or firearms.
The bill would allow them to using vendors that boycott Planned Parenthood over abortion services but disallow them to use vendors that boycott BP over anothet major oil spill. Feel free to punish the left for practicing their values and continue to practice your own right leaning values without worrying about losing your government contracts. Apparently it’s okay to disqualify left-leaning boycotts, but not right-leaning boycotts. You do see how blatantly biased and anti-1st amendment that is, right?
You do see how blatantly biased and anti-1st amendment that is, right?
It IS blatantly biased and anti-1st Amendment, no question about it. However Missouri isn’t the first to do it and I can provide several examples of Blue States engaging in this same tactic, starting prior to the pandemic.
California for instance has a politically motivated Travel Ban to numerous other States, including Florida, that’s founded in who the State will spend money with. Los Angeles once declared that it wouldn’t hire vendors who donated to the NRA and tried to force them disclose that. It’s not just California either, New York has several similar laws.
It’s all politicians flexing their authority over State spending in pursuit of causes that their citizens care about.
failing to meet greenhouse gas emissions standards
The rest are also terrible, but this is a big blow to companies trying to reduce their Scope 2 and 3 emissions. I wonder how many companies that rely on government contracts will have to just give up on their emissions reporting, and therefore also end up divested/boycotted by companies who do not rely on government contracts and are continuing their emissions reporting (including Scope 2/3)? This would split the economy into “government-reliant companies who are not trying to reduce emissions”, and “everyone else”, with neither side including the other in their supply chain.
Last i checked there's already a law like this in Texas that forbids businesses who work with the state from boycotting Israel, oil and gas companies, or gun rights groups
It’s a stalling tactic that all these Red States keep using to enact something clearly in violation of The US Constitution and provisions, so they can wait out the time until the case is taken by a superior court. www.txcourts.gov/supreme/case-summaries/
Not necessarily, businesses would be free to not do business so long as they’re not also contracted with the state. This refers to businesses contracted with the state, so it’s more like the terms of their contract rather than an explicit rights issue.
Businesses doing business with the state would be required to also do business with these other groups or risk losing their contracts. That seems like a clear violation to me.
But it isn’t, and it fits in line with the Civil Rights Act Title VI which prohibits businesses that work for the federal government from discriminating against certain classes. This is the same law, but at the state level. Speech is not curtailed unless you choose the option that requires curtailment.
Like I say, the business is free to not take state contracts then refuse business to whoever they like (just like the gay cake baker did), but if they want to work for the state they have to follow state rules.
It’s several assorted industries, businesses that do not meet, are expected not to meet or do not commit to meet any particular environmental standard, employee compensation standard, board composition standard, or facilitating access to abortion, sex change, or transgender medical treatment. What exactly this entails is about a third of the bill: www.senate.mo.gov/24info/pdf-bill/…/SB1061.pdf
So, if you refuse to deal with a company because that company doesn’t have the right mix of demographics on their board, or works with the timber industry, or their health insurance doesn’t cover trans HRT, then the State of Missouri won’t use you as a vendor.
Is your position that people should be able to discriminate based on any identifying trait? Then you’re against The Constitution, and you will lose in court.
Well that’s the thing, sexual discrimination isn’t really protected in the US outside of employment.
The US has:
14th Amendment, which states the law must apply to everyone equally (so gay people can get married)
The Civil Rights Act, which contains various Titles:
Title II, which prevents businesses in hospitality or operating across state lines from discriminating over race, color, religion, or national origin
Title VI, which prohibits businesses working for the federal government from discriminating over race, color, or national origin
Title VII, which prohibits employers from discriminating over race, color, religion, sex, or national origin
I’m actually in 2 minds about whether the 1st Amendment would prevent this. One the one hand, there is a clear gap in the Federal law that State law should be able to fill. On the other, that gap was exactly the same thing as the gay cake baker successfully challenged against.
What if I just don’t want to donate to the NRA? What if I just decide not to advertise on Twitter? Maybe I can say either of those decisions are for financial reasons, but in the long run it’ll cost me more in lawyers fees to prove it than give them some token amount of money. That doesn’t seem right, particularly the lack of requirements to do business with companies politically aligned on the other end of the spectrum.
As someone who occasionally works government contracts this isn’t an academic question for me, though at least I can prove I don’t advertise anywhere. I can’t claim politically neutral donations, though. I frequently donate to queer-youth-focused charities (although they don’t verify that they refuse to help conservative teen queer-folk, so maybe they are considered neutral?) and never to right-wing causes.
Edit: phone really ate up the end of this post and I was too rushed to reread. Mostly fixed now probably…
Well that’s just the futility of banning boycotts. Unless someone actually says they’re boycotting, you’d have almost no way of proving that they were.
What if I just don’t want to donate to the NRA? What if I just decide not to advertise on Twitter? Maybe I can say either of those decisions are for financial reasons, but in the long run it’ll cost me more in lawyers fees to prove it than give them some token amount of money. That doesn’t seem right, particularly the lack of requirements to do business with companies politically aligned on the other end of the spectrum.
Those are fine by this law.
What this law actually does would be closer to if you refused to do business with another company because **that ** company donates to the NRA, then the State of Missouri refuses to use you as a vendor.
Let’s say my company wins the bid for a contact. Yay! But now one of my competitors checks and I haven’t donated to the NRA and files suit saying I’m ineligible because I refuse to donate to them on a political basis. Now that’s bullshit, but I have to pay a lawyer anyway to go to court and help me explain that it’s bullshit.
In order to forestall that lawsuit, it’s a lot cheaper to just give $50 or whatever to some right wing bullshit charities. It’s only pocket change but I have to pay it to causes I don’t support as a sort of insurance. Yet I can’t turn around and file sit over someone who doesn’t donate to planned parenthood. That’s a hell of a double standard.
Removing any free choice would be a violation of first amendment rights. People can NOT participate in what is mentioned here, but you can’t force them to participate.
Except that they can pass the bill, and enforce the bill, and the legislation stays active and in place until someone with standing files suit, goes to court (taking on the time and money expense of doing so), goes through the appeals process (and we know that the State could also appeal, so either way it goes), on and on until it gets to SCOTUS. All of which can take years, during which unconstitutional fuckery is foisted upon the good citizens of Missouri.
This is the standard that's been set: do whatever the fuck you want, and abuse the judiciary to get away with it as long as possible.
Yeah the majority of SCOTUS has basically decreed that if an issue didn’t exist at the time of the founding of the Constitution then it cannot apply.
It’s very convenient when you can chuck out a solid 150 years of precedent and just pretend the intentions of a bunch of dead people. Fuck ethics and actually engaging with the wording of the law to dicern it’s intention amirite?
…and what that case will end up looking like is a company suing Missouri because Missouri won’t buy shit from them because they in turn won’t buy shit from companies that…aren’t carbon neutral, or also work with the timber industry, or don’t have enough PoC on their corporate boards, or w/e.
Even if this somehow passed… from a business perspective: Pull out of Missouri and stop offering services to 6 million people, or tell tens or hundreds of millions of other people that you’re supporting hate speech? Hmm…
The headline is very misleading. This law would just stop them from getting contracts from the state. They could still do business in the state.
The bill, Senate Bill 1061, would ban companies doing business with the state from engaging in “economic boycotts” over a large list of issues, including transgender care and abortion.
If you’re not doing business with the state, it doesn’t impact you at all.
Yeah, but it could make companies pull out of the state, or to stop doing business with the state. Or they might shoot themselves in the foot by going after major service provider that isn’t going to take kindly to this.
These laws never seem to backfire because for them to backfire, the left would have to start using all of the loopholes that the right have put in place, and for some reason the left continues to act like they're "better than that" as the entire country devolves into fascism. I hope they sleep well at night when they say "well we may have lost our country to fascist dictators, but we didn't break a single rule on the way!"
Just look at the gerrymandering in this country and how it wholly benefits the conservatives and you'll realize the democrats are wholly incapable of even stressing against the rules, even to save our country from people who are actively working to destroy our freedom and our rights. We're never going to beat the opposition when the opposition cheats at every turn and we obey all the rules. It's a losing game and there's no ethical silver bullet that we can say we upheld when our country is overtaken by immoral and deceitful thieves.
Definitely. Republicans are big fans of “let the market decide” and big opponents of “big government dictating what companies should do” until the market decides against them. Then, suddenly, the Republicans are big fans of the government deciding what companies should do and opponents of the free market.
The supposed love of free markets and things like “states rights” is just a cover for their racism and their greed and their insatiable desire to rule over others.
It shows the right never cared about FREEZED PEACH. What they want is a platform like Xitter to be run by a twerp like Space Karen in such a way as to maximize liberal “ownage” and to platform Nazis, and, ideally, give people no way to completely opt out of their dreck.
I am pretty sure this is pure virtue signaling that will be overturned. The article mentions that “Israel boycott” laws have been upheld, but I’m unsure of either the effectiveness of those laws (ie what has to be demonstrated if the entity doesn’t say they’re not entering a contract for political reasons but rather has another justification) or the applicability (since my guess is that the BDS stuff falls under some stretch of the government being the only entity allowed to effect foreign policy decisions, but I’m not sure of the actual legal basis and I’m too tired to research it at the moment).
Add comment