Griffin: ‘Arkansas’s law places our state among those aggressively combating antisemitic conduct’

LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin today issued the following statement announcing that he and 23 other state attorneys general sent a letter urging Brown University to reject a proposal that the university divest from certain companies because they do business with Israel, thus triggering anti-Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction (BDS) laws in several states:

“Nearly three-fourths of the states have laws that prohibit them from contracting with, investing in, or otherwise doing business with entities that discriminate against Israel, Israelis, or those who do business with either. Arkansas’s law places our state among those aggressively combating antisemitic conduct, and it has survived federal court challenge.

“If adopted, the Brown Divest Now proposal will have immediate and profound legal consequences. We urge the Brown University Corporation to reject this antisemitic and unlawful proposal that stems from the violent threats against Jewish students at Brown last spring.”

Brown University President Christina H. Paxson, who in previous years had rejected calls to implement other BDS proposals, has promised that the Brown Divest Now proposal will be on the agenda at the October 2024 business meeting of the Brown University Corporation, adding that the “Corporation is fully committed” to voting on the measure and that the vote “will not be delayed or deferred.”

The Brown Divest Now proposal calls on Brown to divest from companies including Textron, Safariland, Volvo Group, Airbus, Boeing, General Dynamics, General Electric, Motorola, and RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon and United Technologies) because they do business with Israel.

Act 710 of 2017 prohibits the State of Arkansas, its agencies, and its colleges and universities from contracting with or investing in any entity engaged in a boycott of Israel. The full Eighth Circuit upheld that statute against a challenge brought in Arkansas Times LP v. Waldrip.

Joining Griffin in the letter are the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia.

To read the letter, click here.

For a printer-friendly version of this release, click here.

About Attorney General Tim Griffin

Tim Griffin was sworn in as the 57th Attorney General of Arkansas on January 10, 2023, having previously served as the state’s 20th Lieutenant Governor from 2015-2023. From 2011-2015, Griffin served as the 24th representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District, where he served on the House Committee on Ways and Means, House Armed Services Committee, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, House Committee on Ethics and House Committee on the Judiciary while also serving as a Deputy Whip for the Majority.

Griffin has served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for more than 28 years and currently holds the rank of colonel. In 2005, Griffin was mobilized to active duty as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Mosul, Iraq.

He is currently serving as the Commander of the 2d Legal Operations Detachment in New Orleans, Louisiana. His previous assignments include serving as the Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment at Fort Liberty (née Bragg), North Carolina, and as a Senior Legislative Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon. Griffin earned a master’s degree in strategic studies as a Distinguished Honor Graduate from the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

Griffin also served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs for President George W. Bush; Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice; Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Arkansas; Senior Investigative Counsel, Government Reform and Oversight Committee, U.S. House of Representatives; and Associate Independent Counsel, Office of Independent Counsel David M. Barrett, In re: HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.

Griffin is a graduate of Magnolia High School, Hendrix College in Conway, and Tulane Law School in New Orleans. He attended graduate school at Oxford University. He is admitted to practice law in Arkansas (active) and Louisiana (inactive). Griffin lives in Little Rock with his wife, Elizabeth, a Camden native, and their three children.

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