Georgia Southern Sued for Refusing Freedom to Speak
Journalist filmmaker Abby Martin was recently blocked from delivering a keynote speech at the 2020 International Critical Media Literacy Conference at Georgia Southern’s Savannah campus Feb. 28-29. The conference was subsequently canceled for her refusal to “sign a contractual pledge to not boycott Israel” to comply with Georgia’s anti-Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) law.
Journalist Abby Martin had her speech violated and canceled when she refused to sign a document requiring her to forfeit her free speech rights to in order to speak at a conference in Georgia.
The Georgia law was passed in 2016. South Carolina passed a similar bill in 2018 as part of the State budget. Rep. Alan Clemmons introduced the bill and it had been rejected by lawmakers until inserted into the State budget by Sen. Larry Grooms.
Martin said on her Facebook page that, “After I was scheduled to give keynote speech at an upcoming Georgia Southern conference, organizers said I must comply with Georgia’s anti-BDS law and sign a contractual pledge to not boycott Israel. I refused and my talk was canceled. Ironically, the entire event was centered around “media literacy,” which eventually fell apart because my colleagues supported me. These unconstitutional laws must be challenged nationwide.”
Martin filed a lawsuit against the State of Georgia asking the federal court to issue an injunction against enforcement of the Georgia law and for the statute to be declared “unconstitutional and unenforceable statewide.” Lawyers are seeking $1,000 in compensatory damages for Martin.
Martin’s attorney, Gadeir Abbas, said, “There is no place where free speech is more important than on campus. And this attempt to suppress Abby’s views – denying students, academics, and others from hearing her lecture – is as brazen as it is illegal. In adopting this anti-BDS law, Georgia has prioritized the policy preferences of a foreign country over the free speech rights of Americans, like Abby, who speak on this state’s college campuses.”
The suit states that Martin’s invitation to speak “conditioned an invitation to speak at an academic conference on the Plaintiff agreeing in writing to abandon her First Amendment-protected journalism about and political advocacy for the rights of Palestinians,” and alleges violations of the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
Georgia has prioritized the policy preferences of a foreign country over the free speech rights of Americans
In 2016, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal signed a law requiring any person or organization entering into a contract with the state worth at least $1,000 sign an oath promising that they would not oppose the Israeli government in any fashion. In 2015, South Carolina became the first in the nation to passing a similar bill making it illegal to criticize the State of Israel.
In bill author Clemmons’ view, discussing the military occupation of the West Bank, a reality recognized even by Israel’s Supreme Court, would be considered anti-Semitic under the new South Carolina law. Many across the state argue the bill will only make matters worse by forbidding the discussion of topics of importance to students and others.
Federally, Congressmen such as Corey Booker, Marco Rubio, Stephen Collins, and many others have signed on to laws favoring the State of Israel while denying Americans their freedom to speak guaranteed under the Bill of Rights. We have already seen that States which have passed these laws have discovered that it prevented them from collecting donations in natural disasters.
Martin said in an interview on Media Roots radio, that “thousands of people have signed these type contracts without realizing they are signing away fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution.” She continued that “the irony is that you could boycott or criticize any other country in the world and it would be tolerated, including America.”
“I could not sign away my moral compass to the State of Georgia in order to work,” said Martin. She said “it would be impossible for me to comply” to remove any criticism from her website, writings, etc., in order to comply with the Georgia law.
She says “this is not about me, but about justice… our Constitution… our right to free speech, and to challenge a foreign government that is trying to dictate our Constitutional rights.”
“A foreign country is dictating these laws,” she said. Martin states that the State of Israel has admitted to having taken active steps to get laws passed in America to favor Israel.
In all, 28 States have passed state laws forbidding the criticism of the State of Israel, Georgia and South Carolina among them.
“To give up those rights which were so hard fought for and fundamental… to give up those rights in order to work is appalling and unacceptable.” Martin added that “Legislators don’t care about the Constitutional implications of passing laws like this… they must be overturned.”
Michael Reed is Editor of The Standard.
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