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Supreme Court Says Human Rights Advocates Can Be Prosecuted For Advising Terrorists
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June 21, 2010 5:17 p.m. EST
Topics: politics, justice and rights, constitution, defendant, crime, law and justice, prosecution, United States
Tom Ramstack - AHN News Correspondent
Washington, DC, United States (AHN) - The Supreme Court Monday upheld the government’s authority to prosecute human rights advocates who help foreign terrorists in any way, even if only to urge them to resolve their disputes through peaceful means.
The ruling endorsed a federal antiterrorism law that forbids providing “material support” to groups designated by the State Department as terrorists.
“Providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization – even seemingly benign support – bolsters the terrorist activities of that organization,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the 6-to-3 majority.
Human rights organizations that provide legal advice and charitable aid in political hotspots challenged the law.
They were led by Ralph Fertig, a law professor and member of the Los Angeles-based Humanitarian Law Project, who advised the Kurdistan Workers’ Party on how to resolve its political disputes peacefully through the United Nations. The group supports independence for Turkey’s Kurds.
The human rights group said the First Amendment gave them a right to provide any advice they chose as long as they did not advocate violence. They also said they had a constitutional right to associate with anyone of their choice.
Roberts wrote that Fertig and other human rights advocates overstep their First Amendment rights when they provide legal advice to terrorists.
“Plaintiffs may say anything they wish on any topic,” Roberts wrote. “They may speak and write freely about” the Kurdish group at issue in the case, as well as “the governments of Turkey and Sri Lanka, human rights and international law.”
However, they cannot provide “training,” “personnel,” or “expert advice or assistance” forbidden under the 2001 antiterrorism law.
“Such support frees up other resources within the organization that may be put to violent ends,” Roberts wrote. It also “helps lend legitimacy to foreign terrorist groups” and strains “the United States’ relationships with its allies.”
Congress approved the law forbidding material support in 1996 but broadened it under the USA Patriot Act after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The law also prohibits providing cash, weapons or other tangible assistance to terrorists.
Anyone caught providing the support can be sentenced to as much as 15 years in prison, even if they lacked the intent to promote terrorism or violence.
The Justice Department has won convictions against about 75 people under the law since 2001.
The Supreme Court’s ruling Monday was the first time the law clarified conditions for prosecuting Americans who claimed to be human rights advocates.
Joining Fertig as plaintiffs in the case were a doctor and six human rights organizations that helped the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The group is accused of using bombings and kidnappings to seek an independent Tamil state in Sri Lanka.
The State Department has put the Tamil Liberation Tigers, along with al-Qaeda, Hamas and about 30 others, on a list of terrorist groups.
Justices John Paul Stevens, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Anthony Kennedy and Samuel Alito Jr. joined in the majority decision.
Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who dissented in the decision, said “teaching human rights law” was free speech, not assistance to terrorists.
He said the majority’s decision went too far in protecting national security by sacrificing a person’s right to express an opinion.
“The Constitution does not allow all such conflicts to be decided in the government’s favor,” Breyer wrote.
Human rights groups also criticized the ruling, saying it would put a chill on many kinds of humanitarian assistance.
The case is Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, No. 08-1498.
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