# Arkansas Act 710 of 2017 — Israel-Boycott Contract Certification **Act 710 of 2017** (formerly **Senate Bill 513**) is the Arkansas statute prohibiting public entities from contracting with or investing in companies that boycott Israel. Codified at **A.C.A. Title 25 (State Government), Chapter 1, Subchapter 5 (Prohibited Contracts and Investments) — § 25-1-501 through § 25-1-504**. Sponsored by **Senator Bart Hester** (R, SD-001) in the Senate and **Representative Jim Dotson** in the House. Approved by Governor Asa Hutchinson on March 27, 2017; effective August 1, 2017. Primary public record: [Act 710 of 2017 (SB 513) — Enrolled Act](../../web%20archive/2026-06-05/arkleg.state.ar.us/act-710-of-2017-prohibit-public-entities-contracting-with-companies-boycotting-israel.md). ## How it appears in the corpus Act 710 surfaces in the [[Arkansas State Police]] batch-1-fiscal production as a **threshold checkbox on the ASP Purchase Tracking Form** documented in [[PO 4502265167 and Invoice 55924ELSAG — Additional ELSAG Cameras]]: a procurement-routing line marked "**Israel $1k:**" with a checkbox for whether the $1,000 contract-value threshold is triggered. The checkbox's actual value is not OCR-legible from the produced image. The presence of the line on ASP's standard procurement-routing form documents the Fiscal Section's routine implementation of Act 710's § 25-1-503 certification check for vendors above the statutory threshold. Leonardo US Cyber and Security Solutions, LLC is the wholly owned U.S. subsidiary of [[Leonardo S.p.A.]], but foreign parentage is not the Act's legal trigger. The produced batch does not show whether Leonardo furnished an Act 710 certification, used the combined-certification route created in 2025, qualified for an exception, or satisfied the check through a supplier record maintained outside the production. ## What the statute requires (Tier-2, verbatim from enrolled Act) The operative provision is **§ 25-1-503**: > *"(a) Except as provided under subsection (b) of this section, a public entity shall not: (1) Enter into a contract with a company to acquire or dispose of services, supplies, information technology, or construction unless the contract includes a written certification that the person or company is not currently engaged in, and agrees for the duration of the contract not to engage in, a boycott of Israel; or (2) Engage in boycotts of Israel."* (primary public record, [Act 710 of 2017 — Enrolled Act](../../web%20archive/2026-06-05/arkleg.state.ar.us/act-710-of-2017-prohibit-public-entities-contracting-with-companies-boycotting-israel.md)) **Exemptions under § 25-1-503(b):** > *"(b) This section does not apply to: (1) A company that fails to meet the requirements under subdivision (a)(1) of this section but offers to provide the goods or services for at least twenty percent (20%) less than the lowest certifying business; or (2) Contracts with a total potential value of less than one thousand dollars ($1,000)."* **Definition of "Boycott Israel" (§ 25-1-502(1)(A)(i)):** > *"'Boycott Israel' and 'boycott of Israel' means engaging in refusals to deal, terminating business activities, or other actions that are intended to limit commercial relations with Israel, or persons or entities doing business in Israel or in Israeli-controlled territories, in a discriminatory manner."* **Definition of "Public entity" (§ 25-1-502(5)):** > *"'Public entity' means the State of Arkansas, or a political subdivision of the state, including all boards, commissions, agencies, institutions, authorities, and bodies politic and corporate of the state, created by or in accordance with state law or regulations, and does include colleges, universities, a statewide public employee retirement system, and institutions in Arkansas as well as units of local and municipal government."* The definition covers ASP unambiguously: ASP is an agency of the State of Arkansas under DPS, and both the State and its constituent agencies fall within "public entity" for Act 710 purposes. ## How public entities implement the statute Act 936 of 2025 added Ark. Code Ann. section 19-11-282 and a **combined certification** that can satisfy several procurement-certification requirements, including Act 710, instead of requiring a standalone Israel-boycott certificate in every qualifying transaction. Current state forms document that combined route. The original Act 710 duties and exceptions remain relevant, but a routing line alone does not establish which document or supplier-level process completed the check. (primary public record, [Arkansas Act 936 of 2025](../../web%20archive/2026-08-10/arkleg.state.ar.us/arkansas-act-936-of-2025.md)); (primary public record, [Arkansas procurement forms and Combined Certifications Form](../../web%20archive/2026-08-10/sas.arkansas.gov/arkansas-procurement-forms-and-combined-certifications-form.md)) ## Litigation history Act 710 has been the subject of a multi-year First-Amendment legal challenge, culminating in an 8th Circuit en banc opinion upholding the statute: - **December 2018:** ACLU + ACLU of Arkansas filed *Arkansas Times LP v. Waldrip* on behalf of the *Arkansas Times* after the University of Arkansas Pulaski Technical College demanded the publisher sign the anti-boycott certification as a condition of an advertising contract. - **January 23, 2019:** District court (Judge Brian Miller) dismissed for lack of standing. - **February 12, 2021:** 8th Circuit panel reversed, holding the law restricted "protected, boycott-associated activities." - **June 10, 2021:** 8th Circuit granted rehearing en banc, vacating the panel decision. - **June 22, 2022:** 8th Circuit en banc upheld the law, distinguishing "economic decisions that discriminate against Israel" from First-Amendment-protected expressive conduct. - **February 21, 2023:** U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari; the 8th Circuit's en banc holding is the controlling federal-court decision. The controlling en banc opinion construed the Act to reach nonexpressive commercial conduct—refusals to deal, terminations of business activity, and similar commercial conduct—and treated the certification as a factual disclosure verifying compliance with that conduct rule. It did not adopt the vacated panel's broader First Amendment analysis, and the dissent is not the court's holding. (primary public record, [Arkansas Times LP v. Waldrip, 37 F.4th 1386](../../web%20archive/2026-08-10/ecf.ca8.uscourts.gov/arkansas-times-lp-v-mark-waldrip-37-f-4th-1386-8th-cir-2022.md)) ## Stakeholders - **Arkansas General Assembly** — enacted the statute on March 27, 2017 (Hutchinson signature). - **Arkansas state agencies** including ASP and ASP Fiscal Section — administer the Act 710 check, now including the section 19-11-282 combined-certification route. - **Arkansas Development Finance Authority (ADFA)** — designated under § 25-1-502(1)(B) as one of the bodies that can evaluate evidence of company participation in BDS; also receives information regarding investments sold under § 25-1-504(b)(1)(C). - **State retirement systems** — required to maintain the list of restricted companies and apply the divestment procedure in § 25-1-504. - **Vendors** — may satisfy the applicable certification through the current combined form; the original 20%-discount and sub-$1,000 exceptions remain part of the Act 710 framework. ## Notes - **The ASP form proves a routing check, not the compliance document.** The "Israel $1k" value is not OCR-legible, and the production contains neither a standalone Act 710 certificate nor a combined certification for the identified purchase. - **Corporate nationality is not the statutory test.** The relevant questions are whether the contracting company and transaction fall within the Act and how any certification or exception was documented. - **The Term Contract 4600055190 and PO 4502235324** (the larger initial $481K ASP-Leonardo procurement) is structurally in scope of § 25-1-503 as well; the Term Contract's standard general terms and conditions (per [[Term Contract 4600055190 and PO 4502235324 — Initial Leonardo ELSAG Buy]]) reference "ETHICS" and "DISCLOSURE (Executive Order 98-04 compliance)" provisions, but the produced Term Contract document does not show an explicit Act-710 certification clause. Whether the certification appears in a separate companion document (an annex or supplementary disclosure form) is a potential follow-up question. - **The Act's statutory framework is one of several "non-discrimination-on-the-basis-of-trade-relations" measures** in the Arkansas Code that intersect with foreign-vendor procurement. The corpus may document additional related measures in future ingests; this concept page is the anchor for Act 710 specifically.