Humanitarian Law v. U.S. Treasury Dept.

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedAugust 24, 2009
Docket07-55893
StatusPublished

This text of Humanitarian Law v. U.S. Treasury Dept. (Humanitarian Law v. U.S. Treasury Dept.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Humanitarian Law v. U.S. Treasury Dept., (9th Cir. 2009).

Opinion

FOR PUBLICATION UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

HUMANITARIAN LAW PROJECT;  RALPH FERTIG; ILANKAI THAMIL SANGAM; TAMIL WELFARE AND HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE; WORLD TAMIL COORDINATING COMMITTEE; NAGALINGAM JEYALINGAM, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. 07-55893 UNITED STATES TREASURY  D.C. No. CV-05-08047-ABC DEPARTMENT; TIMOTHY F. GEITHNER, Secretary of the OPINION Treasury; ERIC H. HOLDER JR., Attorney General; UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE; HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, Secretary of State; UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF STATE,* Defendants-Appellees. 

*Timothy F. Geithner is substituted for John W. Snow as Secretary of the Treasury, Eric H. Holder is substituted for Alberto R. Gonzales as Attorney General of the United States, and Hillary Rodham Clinton is sub- stituted for Condoleeza Rice as Secretary of State. Fed. R. App. P. 43(c)(2).

11621 11622 HUMANITARIAN LAW PROJECT v. U.S. TREASURY DEP’T Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California Audrey B. Collins, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted November 19, 2008—Pasadena, California

Filed August 24, 2009

Before: Harry Pregerson and Pamela Ann Rymer, Circuit Judges, and Edward R. Korman,** District Judge.

Opinion by Judge Rymer; Dissent by Judge Pregerson

**The Honorable Edward R. Korman, Senior United States District Judge for the Eastern District of New York, sitting by designation. 11626 HUMANITARIAN LAW PROJECT v. U.S. TREASURY DEP’T COUNSEL

David Cole, Georgetown University Law Center, Washing- ton, D.C., for the plaintiffs-appellants.

Joshua Waldman, U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division, Washington, D.C.; Douglas N. Letter, U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division, Washington, D.C., (argued), for the defendants-appellees.

OPINION

RYMER, Circuit Judge:

We are asked to invalidate the President’s authority to des- ignate terrorist organizations when there is an extraordinary threat to national security, as well as the Secretary of the Treasury’s authorization to designate further organizations; and to declare that a ban on providing “services” to, or for the benefit of, such organizations, is unconstitutionally vague and overbroad.

In the wake of September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush declared a national emergency and, invoking the powers vested in him by the International Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), 50 U.S.C. § 1701, et seq., and the United Nations Participation Act (UNPA), 22 U.S.C. § 287c, signed Execu- tive Order 13224. The Executive Order blocks property of twenty-seven designated terrorists, and authorizes the Secre- tary of the Treasury to designate others whom the Secretary determines to be acting for, providing support or services to, or are otherwise associated with, designated persons.

The Humanitarian Law Project (HLP)1 wants to support 1 The Humanitarian Law Project is joined in the action and on appeal by Ralph Fertig, the Ilankai Thamil Sangam, Dr. Nagalingam Jeyalingam, the Tamil Welfare and Human Rights Committee, and the World Tamil Coor- dinating Committee. We will refer to them collectively as the Humanitar- ian Law Project, or HLP. HUMANITARIAN LAW PROJECT v. U.S. TREASURY DEP’T 11627 lawful activities of two organizations that are designated as foreign terrorist organizations — the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) in Turkey, and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka. It claims to have been deterred from doing so out of fear that HLP, too, will be designated as a terrorist organization pursuant to Executive Order 13224 and its implementing regulations, if HLP provides services of any sort to the PKK and the LTTE. Consequently, HLP brought this action to challenge, on First and Fifth Amend- ment grounds, the President’s authority to designate organiza- tions as terrorists under IEEPA and UNPA; the Secretary of the Treasury’s designation authority from the President under Executive Order 13224; the Executive Order’s ban on provid- ing services to designated terrorist organizations; and the reg- ulatory licensing scheme under which organizations may apply for permission to engage in activities that are otherwise prohibited.

The district court held in published opinions that HLP lacks standing to contest the President’s authority or the licensing scheme; and rejected its contention that the Secretary’s desig- nation authority, or the ban on services, is unconstitutionally infirm. Humanitarian Law Project v. United States Dep’t of Treasury, 463 F.Supp.2d 1049 (C.D. Cal. 2006); Humanitar- ian Law Project v. United States Dep’t of Treasury, 484 F.Supp.2d 1099 (C.D. Cal. 2007).

We agree with the district court that the Humanitarian Law Project lacks standing to challenge the President’s designation authority because HLP has never been designated, or threat- ened with designation, on account of it. We disagree with HLP’s contention that self-censorship suffices for injury-in- fact because IEEPA on its face does not regulate speech, but conduct. Therefore, the standing requirements for pre- enforcement challenges set out in Thomas v. Anchorage Equal Rights Commission, 220 F.3d 1134 (9th Cir. 2000), apply. We conclude that HLP likewise cannot show injury-in- fact with respect to the licensing regulations as it has never 11628 HUMANITARIAN LAW PROJECT v. U.S. TREASURY DEP’T applied for, or been denied, a license. We also agree with the district court that the Secretary’s authority to designate terror- ist groups is adequately constrained by criteria in the Execu- tive Order. Similarly, the ban on “services” to designated organizations is not unconstitutionally vague; “services” are clearly enough delineated by examples in the regulations for a person of ordinary intelligence to understand what kind of activities are not permitted. HLP worries that protected speech such as independent advocacy may be caught in the net, but the Secretary does not interpret the ban this way, nor do we. Finally, we hold that no mens rea is required for IEEPA’s civil provisions, and its criminal provisions raise no constitutional concerns as they include willfulness, or knowl- edge of unlawfulness, as an element. Accordingly, we affirm.

I

This is not the first time that HLP and the government have collided over the government’s power to regulate non-terrorist activities in aid of terrorist organizations. HLP previously took on the ban against providing material support and resources to foreign terrorist organizations in the Antiterro- rism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), Pub. L. No. 104-132, 110 Stat. 1214, and its 2004 amendment, the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA), see 18 U.S.C. § 2339B. That history is recounted in Humani- tarian Law Project v. Mukasey, 552 F.3d 916, 920-24 (9th Cir. 2009) (HLP III) (amending opinion filed December 10, 2007). Though involving a different statute with different text, HLP III and Humanitarian Law Project v. Reno, 205 F.3d 1130 (9th Cir. 2000) (HLP I), inform some of the issues in this case and both parties draw succor from what we have held.

AEDPA made it a crime for anyone knowingly to provide “material support or resources” to a foreign terrorist organiza- tion designated by the Secretary of State. 8 U.S.C. § 1189(a)(1); 18 U.S.C.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Scales v. United States
367 U.S. 203 (Supreme Court, 1961)
Broadrick v. Oklahoma
413 U.S. 601 (Supreme Court, 1973)
Steffel v. Thompson
415 U.S. 452 (Supreme Court, 1974)
Parker v. Levy
417 U.S. 733 (Supreme Court, 1974)
Babbitt v. United Farm Workers National Union
442 U.S. 289 (Supreme Court, 1979)
Hoffman Estates v. Flipside, Hoffman Estates, Inc.
455 U.S. 489 (Supreme Court, 1982)
Virginia v. American Booksellers Assn., Inc.
484 U.S. 383 (Supreme Court, 1988)
City of Lakewood v. Plain Dealer Publishing Co.
486 U.S. 750 (Supreme Court, 1988)
Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife
504 U.S. 555 (Supreme Court, 1992)
Hudson v. United States
522 U.S. 93 (Supreme Court, 1997)
Hill v. Colorado
530 U.S. 703 (Supreme Court, 2000)
Virginia v. Hicks
539 U.S. 113 (Supreme Court, 2003)
Islamic American Relief Agency v. Gonzales
477 F.3d 728 (D.C. Circuit, 2007)
John R. Louis v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue
170 F.3d 1232 (Ninth Circuit, 1999)
Brian Majors v. Marsha Abell
317 F.3d 719 (Seventh Circuit, 2003)
Humanitarian Law Project v. Mukasey
552 F.3d 916 (Ninth Circuit, 2009)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
Humanitarian Law v. U.S. Treasury Dept., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/humanitarian-law-v-us-treasury-dept-ca9-2009.