Last Thursday, the Senate’s first bill of the new Congress – S.1 – was introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), and it encourages states to punish people for boycotting for Palestinian rights.

To make matters worse, the Senate is scheduled to vote on the bill tomorrow, Tuesday, January 8.

Sen. Rubio’s new bill incorporates language from the Combating BDS Act, his unconstitutional bill which we defeated in the last Congress.

The Combating BDS Act calls upon states and cities to enact laws that curtail our constitutional freedoms, by denying government contracts to people who boycott for Palestinian rights. In response to lawsuits filed by the ACLU, these types of laws have already been declared unconstitutional by federal judges in Kansas and Arizona, and there are three additional lawsuits currently challenging similar laws in Texas and Arkansas.

Please pick up the phone right now and call your Senators to urge them to vote NO on S.1. Type in your street address and zip code to get contact information for your Senators. After you call, please be sure to fill out the form letting us know you called so we can keep track of the number of calls generated.

Here's a sample script, but please use your own words when calling:

Hi, my name is _____ from [City,State] and I am calling Sen. X to urge them to VOTE NO ON S.1 on Tuesday. This bill includes the Combating BDS Act, which was defeated in the previous two Congressional sessions because it is unconstitutional. It encourages states to pass laws that punish people who boycott for Palestinian rights by denying them government contracts. Federal judges in Kansas and Arizona have ruled these types of laws to be a violation of our First Amendment right to boycott. I am especially outraged that while parts of the government remain shutdown, the Senate would consider its most urgent act to be denying us our First Amendment rights. Please ask the Senator to vote no on S.1. Thank you.