Could Your Right to Boycott Be at Risk? A Strategic Look at the IGO Anti-Boycott Act
By Robert McDonald, Senior Legislative Researcher, A New Policy
The right to boycott stands as a bedrock of American political action, a non-violent tradition for change dating back to the Boston Tea Party and a critical tool that helped dismantle apartheid in South Africa. This essential freedom—the power of citizens and businesses to wield their economic choices for moral and political ends—is now under heightened and strategic legislative assault.
A recent piece of legislation, the IGO Anti-Boycott Act, threatens to further restrict this fundamental right, imposing draconian penalties that could silence dissent and cripple U.S. competitiveness abroad.
The Proposed Legislation: Expanding Federal Penalties to Global Dissent
Introduced on January 31, 2025, by Representative Michael Lawler, the IGO Anti-Boycott Act is a targeted amendment designed to expand the reach of the original Anti-Boycott Act of 2018.
The Current Threat
The Original Law (2018): The Anti-Boycott Act of 2018 already imposes severe federal penalties—up to 20 years in prison or fines up to $1 million—on Americans who participate in boycotts promoted by foreign countries.
The New Expansion: The IGO Anti-Boycott Act would apply these same severe penalties to boycotts promoted by International Governmental Organizations (IGOs), such as the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU), Organization of American States (OAS), International Court of Justice (ICJ), , or the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Strategic Target
The original 2018 law and this new expansion exist for one clear, primary purpose: to suppress American participation in any economic pressure against the State of Israel, particularly the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Currently, there are no other significant boycott movements against an American ally that would trigger this specific legislation. This is not about protecting an American ally; it is about using federal law to criminalize a specific form of political speech.
Why This Bill Directly Undermines Core American Values and Interests
This legislation presents a direct challenge to the First Amendment and creates a dangerous environment for American businesses operating in the global market.
1. The Criminalization of Free Speech and Protest
This act establishes a dangerous precedent where the government can choose which foreign policy protests are permissible and which are felonies.
Historical Precedent Threatened: The U.S. government never penalized Americans for participating in the global anti-apartheid boycott of South Africa—a protest Nelson Mandela credited as a catalyst for ending minority rule. The 2018 Anti-Boycott Act would have retroactively made that historical American action a felony. The IGO Anti-Boycott Act further erodes this core freedom of protest.
2. Jeopardizing U.S. Business and Global Competitiveness
The bill puts U.S. companies in an impossible legal bind, forcing them to choose between violating U.S. federal law and losing market access in aligned, democratic nations.
The Irish Conflict: As Congressman Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) tells the Government of Ireland in a recent letter, the pending law in Ireland which seeks to prohibit the importation of goods originating only from the illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory would result in.
American companies doing business in Ireland risk violating the U.S. Anti-Boycott Act and facing massive fines or jail time.
American companies would need to choose whether to do business in Ireland or lose all ability to conduct business there to be in compliance with the U.S. Anti-Boycott Act.
The Cost: This policy doesn’t just threaten activists; it endangers American jobs and the competitiveness of U.S. businesses against any country that attempts to align their policies with international law, human rights, or support for Palestinian self-determination.
A New Policy: How we are Acting Against this Strategic Threat
The IGO Anti-Boycott Act has struggled to pass on its own merits, underscoring its unpopularity and strategic weakness:
A vote scheduled for May 5, 2025, was pulled by House leadership due to insufficient support.
The bill’s proponents then attempted to attach it as a stealth amendment to a large defense spending bill, but it failed to pass the House Rules Committee.
This is a critical threat vector. It is common practice for unpopular or weak standalone bills to be strategically inserted into massive, must-pass legislation (like defense or appropriations bills) to avoid public scrutiny and a direct vote. This is precisely how the 2018 Anti-Boycott Act became law—it was quietly slipped into the Export Control Reform Act of 2018.
A New Policy’s Goal Here: We are a strategic watchdog, meticulously tracking these legislative maneuvers and back-door attempts to erode your constitutional rights and economic freedom. We monitor these processes to lobby on your behalf and ensure that major policy shifts—however quietly they are attempted—do not undermine American principles.
The fight to protect your right to boycott is ongoing, and A New Policy stands ready to defend it.
