Congress keeps coming up with creative end-runs around the constitutional right to boycott. In 2017 and 2018, members of Congress from both parties unsuccessfully pushed a bill that would use export control laws to make encouraging boycotts of Israel punishable by 20 years in prison. Last year, a bipartisan coalition tried to ban "furnishing information" to an international boycott movement against Israel, only to postpone the vote due to opposition from the libertarian-leaning Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.) and other Republicans.
On Thursday, the House of Representatives passed the Protect Economic and Academic Freedom Act, sponsored by Reps. Virginia Foxx (R–N.C.) and Josh Gottheimer (D–N.J.). The bill would require federally funded universities to certify that they "will not engage in a nonexpressive commercial boycott of a major strategic partner of the United States." It cites only one definition of "major strategic partner," Section 4 of Public Law 113–296, which states: "It is the sense of Congress that Israel is a major strategic partner of the United States."
