The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a lawsuit against Texas鈥� anti-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement law , concluding that the plaintiff did not have standing.

The plaintiff, Haseeb Abdullah, filed in the lawsuit in 2020 after Texas鈥� Employee Retirement System divested from a Norwegian company that boycotted Israel. Abdullah, who used to work for the state government and currently works in Travis County, has contributed to that retirement fund and will receive retirement benefits from it. Therefore, he argued in the lawsuit that he would suffer economic damage from the anti-BDS law. Abdullah also argued the anti-BDS law violated constitutional rights.

The court did not buy Abdullah鈥檚 arguments, concluding that Abdullah鈥檚 claim of future economic loss from the law is too 鈥渟peculative鈥� and that he did not show that the law in any way infringed upon his constitutional rights. Thus, the court upheld a lower court鈥檚 ruling that Abdullah did not have standing to sue.

鈥淭exas鈥檚 anti-boycott law is both constitutional and, unfortunately, increasingly necessary as the radical left becomes increasingly hostile and antagonistic toward Israel,鈥� Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) in an April 18 statement. 鈥淭hough some wish to get rid of the law and see Israel fail, the State of Texas will remain firm in our commitment to stand with Israel by refusing to do business with companies that boycott the only democratic nation in the Middle East. In this case, I鈥檓 pleased to see the court recognize that the plaintiff lacked any standing to bring this challenge. Thus, our important law remains in effect, and I will continue to defend it relentlessly.鈥�

In January 2022, a separate lawsuit against the law resulted in a being issued against it. Paxton appealed the injunction to the Fifth Circuit, which remains ongoing.