Office and not be able to be held permanently liable. Now trump made sure he didnt have to, but he made sure to attend this hearing today and spoke with the media in a room just down the road from here. Again, claiming that he is a victim as the president and disney jobs. As an example, in this case were last and i did nothing wrong, absolutely not working for the country. And i worked on part one because we have to have 3 things. First of all, the outcome of this case is potentially very significant. Not just for donald trump, but for the president ial election. There were some poll 24 percent of his supporters said if hes convicted on this case, that he shouldnt be on the ballot. Patio, hey l g 0, washington. Us defense secretary lloyd austin is being treated for prostate cancer. Hes been receiving care at the will to Read National minute treat medical center. Austin had earlier drawn criticism from some republicans who say he broke rules by not informing the whitehouse or scientists have confirmed that 2023 was the wells closest yet, as i mentioned, he wrote the previous record by substantial margin, most likely wells who missed in the last 100000 years, news continues here now its there off the boy costs to fight for freedom of expression in the us. The on counting the cost, the world is drowning in a rec, what amounts of debt concentrated in developing countries, coordination to being forced to service the liabilities instead of providing for the people. So heres the plane for the delay in the debt relief efforts. Tunzia the cost on al jazeera, the spring cord, as long hill, that little boy cards or form of expression protected by the 1st amendment. My name is Margaret Hester and from arkansas, and im a state senator and the majority leader here in arkansas. So 1st of all, im very open about my face and i was very open about that in my campaign. And i hope that my face effects everything that i do hope it affects the way that im speaking to you. I hope that affects the way that i treat all my colleagues. And i certainly hope effects every vote that i take majority later said, or bart has servers recognize as possibly anti boycott bill because, you know, i think its just the right thing to do. Jewish people are gods chosen people and i feel like an obligation to do anything within my control or power to support them or protect the members of thatll says what this does. This is an act driven public and these from contracting with and investing in companies to boycott israel. Its good pro israel bill by a sen, hester. Appreciate again the the state is not protected from the church, but the church is protected from the state. I would say if theres 35 members of the arkansas center, i would say 35 members would say that they are the leaders in biology scratch pressing for the house this passage, a set of bill fire, 13 prepared the machine. Mr. Clerk, i would say probably half would ident files evangelicals. They understand how important it is to support israel. 69. 00 yeas 3 days is 0 present. The bill is past the, the, the. So this is where a lot of the providers are coming from. Now. Our family has been here for generations. My grandfather, he was a farmer. All my uncles for farmers, as you know were scotch irish. I mean were just white trash farmers. Ill be of assistance, but that has square because from the left college, the 1974 to started magazine called the arkansas times the door. A bunch of 20 some things before we were the 1st people to have ever discovered arkansas. Were incredibly excited about the music, the history of the mythology, the beauty we wanted to discover arkansas or one to tell others about it. And we want to write about it. This was a great story. The arkansas read next. What was it . Love, or fighter . Country boy, it was a sort of a love letter to read next the, the times is free. So we can be here without advertising. And the state governments, a big source of our income, the schools, the colleges, the Health Center is the hospitals. All those agencies advertise because you sign a contract with the state to provide them advertising and they provide your money now in order to get our money, we have to pledge not to boycott israel. I mean, when we got our 1st notice, i didnt think anyone waiting for the that we were able to to ignore it for a long time. And finally, there was this purchasing guy with one of the colleges and he was just not going to let go. They said, im going to keep you from getting business from us until you sign. This is required by the law the, you know, when we 1st read about this last week, we did a story on it. So looks this and people, most people i talked to the go, what does that have to do with the price of to you in china . I mean, you know, you have to take a, you know, its just, it has no relevance or bearing on arkansas. I have the right, the boy con, anyone i want to and the state has no business getting involved in that period. So there is so we said no, the chair calls are here. Im always i just state your name who you represent and position on the bill. My name is virginia marie, im representing myself and im against this bill happening today, a muslim group plans to issue a legal challenge to a texas law and its all about israel. It was actually the 1st bill of the 85th legislature, governor gray guided sign into law which says, israel is one of texas largest training today, care or the council on American Islamic relations for announced a major 1st amendment legal challenge to the law. What youre really hoping to stay will do is completely repeal and repeal the, the any media stature. Repeal anything that has to violate my a my right to freedom of speech, my right to boycott and to choose a political view of my own palestinian American Teacher in austin, texas has filed a federal lawsuit for losing her job as a speech pathologist, after refusing to sign a pro israel old, and im gonna send email to my sons coordinator. Im telling her, listen, i cannot sign this is against my principles against my constitutional rights. And, and its also, i guess, my moral and ethical values considering that i am a palestinian american and i have family that actually live in occupied territories or a fax to me personally as well. So and effects me in both ways, american citizens and as of how soon american to the me one and have us 9. We have a snack 1st to excellent. Pastor for huh. Okay. I have a lot of family members are still reside in occupied territory. News. I know what ive seen 1st and justice and equality that goes on there. That close off me roads only for meeting is ways to drive on those roads. But basically, the whole idea is to make it as hard as possible for them to function and to have a livelihood anyhow, School Closures resting Young Children the and i could not, you know, stay quiet and just go on with my life. Well, i know that this law is gonna make it ok to continue this kind of oppression against the palestinians. The in recent years, about 2 dozen states, republican and democrat has passed laws or executive orders to stymie the media movement. Arizona as long sale through the legislature with broad support that put, make sure it all in a difficult situation. His parents lived in the west bank during the seventys and ever since college hes advocated for palestinian rights. Short all never expected. His views on the is really Palestinian Conflict to come up in his day job. After all, he gives legal advice to inmates in arizona. The was just opening my annual contract from the state of arizona. And i was rather shocked to see this the i had promised my son ever since his bar mitzvah many years ago. His mom is jewish, so i am not but i had promised him a trip to the middle east. And so as low as im 12 years later, we finally went and we had an incredible trip there. I saw a lot of things that were very disturbing that we saw in terms of civil rights, Civil Liberties discrimination. My moms parents are definitely more on the conservative side of things, they would absolutely call themselves sinus. So it was interesting being exposed to that authentication, easily having all of this exposure to the injustices that are happening in israel in the us. Then i think after that trip for him, it was really clear that he wanted to boycott any companies that were contributing to the just this is happening in the west bank. I am boycotting Hewlett Packard because they are involved in the bio metrics for the check points. Every palestinian has an id card that they must have and they delay palestinians for many, many hours at a time. And so thats part and parcel of the occupation the after my a trip to the west bank and seeing what ive seen. I was incensed enough that i said i couldnt sign this and i had to file suit i was committed to continuing on providing the services, but not getting paid a substantial chunk of change for me. But that was, i was just, im willing to sign that certification and i didnt want to leave the jail in the lurch either. So i wanted to provide the service and so the decision to the state that was not one that he made lightly. We definitely worried about people smearing his reputation, documented us, and that he was very fearful that to reduce it took us by the head, the extremely proud of him and making the choice. They did the i 1st during the sale you as an intern at the so youve southern california. Believe that would have been the summer of 2009. It was after my 1st year of law school. It was definitely something i was seeking out since high school. I been kind of obsessed with the sale you to be honest. So this was at the beginning of the iraq war. And i remember that there was this kind of rush to consensus that we shouldnt beta rack because saddam had weapons of mass destruction. And anybody who spoke out against it was a terrorist, sympathizer, or a communist or are fundamentally into american. And i remember that the still you campaign at that time was that the sentence patriotic. And thats something that really resonated with me. I always like to tell people that we have the best clients. In this case, i think its absolutely true. All manner of people have been forced to sign these anti bully ca, certification forms. Many of them are reluctant to throw themselves into the middle of a major public controversy. But weve got a few brave individuals to step forward and say, hey, this is the right thing to do. What im going to do it. Thats the kind of moral courage that makes me so happy to work at these. All you have us just wanna check in briefly about the total case where we are on the briefing is gone through basically all the levels of approval and that it needs to go through and were gonna get it out hopefully today. And what about the other cases . The arkansas one i think is going to be filed in the next couple days. And then the texas case, i hope all gets in the next week or 2 on on many fronts. Yes. One of the things that we hope to do with these cases is when a couple of them very quickly on the states that has these kinds of laws to kind of deter others from doing the same thing. If all the courts are you now that these laws are unconstitutional, then my guess is that these bills will just die. And i think of states, they dont want the public to really be aware of whats going on. They dont want to have an open debate about it. They recognize that when people actually understand what the state was doing here, they would be absolutely horrified and appalled that legislatures would be trading away americans 1st amendment right so easily. Or this problem today. Where did that idea . You know, i cant nail down exactly where it came from, but im really so much just talking with my colleagues reading and then a chance meeting with another legislator from another state helped me really start to try to wrap in what was important i was at a hotel and there was an hour meeting going on. A coastal resort, protected by our guard. This is in the state capital. Its a resort hotel where lawmakers are winding, dine as members of the American Legislative Exchange council or alec. This is a very, very Important Group across the country. Weve been more than 1300 people here. Our organization represents 25 percent of all state legislators in the country. Look closely at many conservative was passed by state legislatures and youre likely to find the hand of alex. Alex is the perfect petri dish for what ends up being a very, very destructive legislative scheme. In our country they bring together corporate leaders, evangelical leaders, and right wing legislators. They meet twice a year behind closed doors. And almost invariably, the laws they seek to pass and move out into the world, restrict the ability of people to be able to effectively operate in their democracy from stand your Ground Self Defense laws, district photo id laws, which critics say make it harder for minorities and the poor to vote. The group says its bottle bills are templates for as many as 200. 00 state laws passed a year. Theyre thinking about creating whats called model legislation. I like bills come complete with blanks where legislators need only fill in their state name. You start out with one idea and i met test the sizes into something that see a red click to be applicable every place in the united states. Its pretty safe to say that there wouldnt be 10 type boy bills popping up in different states around the country. Without out the so we have the tribune. Obviously we have k, u t. Cbs and the Office Number 250 the high you made it easy. We have one of my days, the wind round rock speech pathologist, but here we filed suit against lucre bill i as the and the state of texas. She says she didnt do it for as railing or palestinian values, but for American Values is our responsibility to fight, to protect and preserve freespace for children. Similar to exactly that, our Founding Fathers had envisioned this law house bill. 89 was nothing but a censorship long meant to silence texans and punish them for expressing the practical view. Texts and government should not be putting the interest of a foreign country over its own people. Thank you. A speech pathologist in full real says the state is trying to silence her right to free speech. When this story that his story started getting a lot of attention, the governor of texas simply tweeted out, texas stands with israel period. Any anti is real policy . Theres an anti texas policy the the as far as i know, im the only speech pathologist, as in the founding austin then losing unimportant service thats not available. Otherwise i feel like i am putting down my community the theres no boycott activism at arkansas. Probably this law is about the only thing people only way people know about course were just, were not boycotting any what were just saying. You have no right to tell us what our speech should be. And if we want to, if we want to boycott, we can. And so its none of your business its, its a, its a political act and its not one that i choose to take. I just object to government, say we got a big a whole lot of money over here, but were not, it will give it to you will that will advertise with you. But heres, heres some, heres some conditions that you need to meet 1st, such as, heres the political position you need to take regarding Foreign Policy for gods sake and were in arkansas. Well, as i think alans case demonstrates, you dont have to be participating in a board kind of israel to find these anti boycott was fundamentally on american. Alan, i hate to ask you this, but lets say that the paper uh action is unsuccessful in color or do you plan on signing that pledge or what does that mean for the future of your newspaper . Should you lose . I havent gone there yet to but that thats something that will be a very, very difficult uh, very, very difficult decision for me. So we close this wednesday. March is for about 51000 and we need to get to 65. Is when we get hanging out there started the time, so 200. 00. So i wanted to go through the advertise last year. We dodge so many bullets over the last 45 years and and the newspaper businesses got tougher and tougher. The lease of the accurate clinic room for about 35. 00 people here to people whose families and mortgages the year for the state advertising. We can be on the the, when we launched the lawsuit, i was very confident i mean, any country that bases its found the mythology around the Boston Tea Party and the boy thought of t. You would think that today you, 100 years later, we would still see boy cods as a political, a former political speech, and therefore protected by the 1st amendment. Today im going to sign an executive order that says if you boy tide against israel, new york, or boring time you, we in america must stand strong with israel through 2nd. One of the highest duties of elected legislators is to defend our constitution. But here theyre just giving away our 1st amendment rights to a foreign country. This horse was a non mark and a symbol beat from the remains of cars and ambulances. Israel talking to during an invasion of things, you need refugee camp in 2002. Now its been removed by the way people do research, and it shows us where this cultures to. Hes proud, he was involved in creating the destruction of one humans, aims to crush their spirit and punish those, showing supports for any acts of resistance. Had to choose his 5 year old son, add them photos of them working on this culture and says the process tells a lot about the need to, i guess. And again, the phasing cap is carissa cuts are for a record 3rd touring the 2014 the smoking piece, including house and defending champions, cuts our son, humans, south korea and palestine who will place despite the war back home will keep you right across the actions out the tournament, the hazy house on al jazeera, the, [000 00 00;00] the us 2nd just a anthony blinking that says the daily desk told in the war on gods respond to hi pads. Its vital. Its rather cheese. Its subject to the ground carry johnston. This is, ill just say, right, well, i prove so on the printer is route or does the evacuation of medical stuff from our