Humanitarian Law Project v. United States Department of Justice
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
352 F.3d 382 (2003)
- Written by Tammy Boggs, JD
Facts
In 1996, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) was signed into law. Under the AEDPA, the United States secretary of state was authorized to designate an organization as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), and under 18 U.S.C. § 2339B, it was a crime for anyone to knowingly provide material support and resources to an FTO. A group of humanitarian-aid organizations and individuals, including the Humanitarian Law Project (together, HLP) (plaintiffs) sought to support the peaceful pursuits of certain organizations that had been designated as FTOs. HLP was deterred from assisting the FTOs in any manner due to the FTO designations. HLP sued the U.S. government (defendant), challenging the constitutionality of the AEDPA or specified provisions of the statute. The district court refused to entirely invalidate the AEDPA but restrained the government from enforcing certain provisions. HLP appealed. On appeal, HLP argued that § 2339B was unconstitutional because it did not require the government to prove an individual’s guilty intent.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Pregerson, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 832,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,500 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
