A controversial Illinois law is at the center of the national debate on states’ rights in dealing with foreign governments.
In January, the Illinois Legislature enacted the Act to End Atrocities and Terrorism in the Sudan — the nation’s first such law and the most restrictive.
This triggered a lawsuit, filed in August by the National Foreign Trade Council, a business organization that represents more than 300 of the largest companies in the world, which is arguing that Illinois has overstepped its constitutional authority by attempting to establish foreign policy.
Meanwhile, federal lawmakers seem content to let the courts decide. On Oct. 13, the Congress enacted the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act, signed by President George W. Bush, which places more sanctions on the government of Sudan.
However, lawmakers removed language that protected states such as Illinois from legal action.
A trial in the Illinois Sudan-divestment case, scheduled for district court in Chicago later this month, may determine the fate of at least 15 states, including the nation’s most populous, that are also considering divestment.
In late September, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill requiring the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System to sell the stock of companies refusing to halt their business activities with the Sudanese government after 90 days’ warning.
NFTC president William Reinsch says that his group has no immediate plans to sue California and will await the outcome of the Illinois court battle, which he’s confident they will win.
“If we win in Illinois, which we think we will, then we will write the other states that have statutes that are similarly flawed and apprise them of the court ruling and ask them to repeal their statutes. If they don’t, we will have to sue them. And we will,” Reinsch told the San Francisco Chronicle.
U.S. officials, including the president, have accused Sudan’s government of sponsoring Arab militia groups, which have been carrying out a genocide campaign since 2003, killing an estimated 400,000 people, and displacing 2.5 million more, in the region of western Sudan known as Darfur.
Contact R.L. Nave rnave@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Oct 12-18, 2006.
