On June 21, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a portion of the USA Patriot Act that makes it a crime to provide “material support” to any group that has been designated by the Attorney General as a “foreign terrorist organization.” The decision was a victory for WLF, which filed a brief urging the Court to uphold the law. The Court agreed with WLF that the statute is not impermissibly vague and does not violate the First Amendment rights of individuals who wish to support humanitarian work conducted by terrorist groups. The Court held that the First Amendment does not prevent Congress from barring actions taken to aid terrorist groups simply because the actions may have an expressive component, when it does so based on a reasonable conclusion that the actions are likely to promote the groups’ terrorist goals. The Court held that when aid is provided for a group’s humanitarian activities, that frees up resources that it can then re-allocate to its terrorist activities.

Victory