1 May 1998
United Press International

Massachusetts sued over Burma law

BOSTON, May 1 (UPI) Massachusetts says it will vigorously defend its law limiting state trade with companies that do business with Burma.

Massachusetts passed the law in 1996 to protest human rights violations in that Southeast Asian nation.

The National Foreign Trade Council filed suit in federal court in Boston Thursday challenging the law as unconstitutionally encroaching on the authority of the U.S. government to conduct foreign affairs.

The council also claims the state law is pre-empted by federal law concerning Burma.

The law directs state officials to establish a list of people doing business with Burma and restricts the ability of those people to sell goods and services to the state.

In vowing to "vigorously defend" the law, state Attorney General Scott Harshbarger said the Constitution allows states to choose not to buy goods and services from people who do business with countries that violate civil rights.

He said these choices "do not interfere" in any way with the federal government's conduct of foreign affairs or foreign commerce.

He said that Massachusetts "should play a role in trying to improve the human rights of the people of Burma and I believe the Constitution allows us to do so."

More than a dozen cities in the United States, including New York and San Francisco, have similar laws.

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