Preserve Free Speech

Floor Speech

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Ms. TLAIB. Madam Speaker, I stand before you as the granddaughter of a Palestinian grandmother, my sity, who yearns to experience equality, human dignity, and freedom. I stand before you, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, parents who experienced being stripped of their human rights, the right to freedom of travel and equal treatment. So I can't stand by and watch this attack on our freedom of speech and the right to boycott the racist policies of the Government and the State of Israel.

I love our country's freedom of speech, Madam Speaker. Dissent is how we nurture democracy and grow to be better, more humane, and just. This is why I oppose H. Res. 246.

All Americans have a constitutional right, guaranteed by the First Amendment, to freedom of speech, to petition their government, and to participate in boycotts.

Speech in pursuit of civil and human rights at home and abroad is protected by our First Amendment. That is one reason why our First Amendment is so powerful. With a few exceptions, the government is simply not allowed to discriminate against speech based on its viewpoint or its speaker.

The right to boycott is deeply rooted in the fabric of our country. What was the Boston Tea Party but a boycott? Where would we be now without the boycott led by civil rights activists in the 1950s and 1960s, like the Montgomery bus boycott and United Farm Workers grape boycott.

Some of this country's most important advances in racial equality and equity and workers' rights have been achieved through collective action protected by our Constitution.

Americans of conscience have a long and proud history of participating in boycotts specifically to advocate for human rights abroad. Americans boycotted Nazi Germany in response to dehumanization, imprisonment, and genocide of Jewish people. In the 1980s, many of us in this very body boycotted South African goods in the fight against apartheid.

Our right to free speech is being threatened with this resolution. It sets a dangerous precedent because it attempts to delegitimize certain people's political speech and to send a message that our government can and will take action against speech it doesn't like.

Madam Speaker, the Supreme Court has, time and time again, recognized that expressive conduct is protected by the Constitution, from burning a flag to baking a cake. Efforts to restrict and target that protected speech run the risk of eroding the civil rights that form the foundation of our democracy.

All Americans have the right to participate in boycotts, and I oppose all legislative efforts that target speech.

Madam Speaker, I urge Congress, State governments, and civil rights leaders from all communities to preserve our Constitution, preserve our Bill of Rights, and preserve the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of speech by opposing H. Res. 246 and antiboycott efforts wherever they arise.

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