It is a Supreme Court showdown, pitting the First Amendment right to free speech against the government’s interest in eliminating terror groups aiming to destroy the United States. At issue is a federal law that bans any material support to a foreign terrorist organization. The law prohibits not only financial contributions, but also “service … training, expert advice or assistance … personnel.” A number of humanitarian groups say the law is too vague and keeps them from assisting the legitimate efforts that some terror-designated groups actually perform – while also stifling their right to free speech. Sharon Bradford Franklin of the Constitution Project says, “They want to be able to provide training in human rights activities and peace building activities.” For more than a decade, those groups have waged a legal battle to have the material support law overturned.
Today, a number of Justices expressed skepticism about the ability of any individual or group to provide support to the legal efforts of a terrorist organization without benefitting the violent, illegal wing of the organization. Justice Antonin Scalia said Congress had clear intentions and that, “Any assistance you provide to these organizations cannot be separated from assistance to their terrorist activities.” The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has filed a brief in support of the government’s efforts to uphold the current law. Deborah Lauter, of the ADL, echoes Justice Scalia’s comments, “If you’re going to be supporting humanitarian aid to these organizations you’re in effect bolstering their work to engage in terrorist activity.” Lauter added, “You can’t have it both ways.”
As to arguments about whether the wording of the law itself is too vague, Justice Sonia Sotomayor seemed willing to examine that issue when she noted tongue-firmly-in-cheek, “Under the definition of this statute, teaching these members to play the harmonica would be unlawful.” Justice Sotomayor went on to say, “There has to be something more than merely a congressional finding that any training is bad.” It could be months before we get the Court’s opinion. In the meantime, more than 150 people have been charged under the material support law in its current form.