U.S. Supreme Court to weigh overseas anti-AIDS funding restrictions

[May 05, 2020]  By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court on Tuesday is set to hear arguments over whether a U.S. law violates constitutional free speech rights by requiring overseas affiliates of American-based nonprofit groups that seek federal funding for HIV/AIDS relief to formally adopt a stance against prostitution and sex trafficking.

The case is the second in which the nine justices will hear arguments by teleconference following Monday's debut of the call-in format prompted by the coronavirus pandemic in a trademark dispute involving hotel reservation website Booking.com.

President Donald Trump's administration is appealing a 2018 ruling by the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in favor of non-profit organizations that challenged a provision of the 2003 law as a violation of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.

Organizations including the Alliance for Open Society International, Pathfinder International, InterAction and the Global Health Council challenged the constitutionality of the measure.

The groups, which currently take no stance on prostitution, said the law interferes with their work providing advice and counseling to sex workers about the risks of HIV infection. The groups did not challenge a separate provision of the law that bars applicants from using federal funds to promote or advocate the legalization of prostitution or sex trafficking.

The plaintiffs obtained an injunction in 2006 that has prevented the policy from being enforced against them. The Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that the law violated the free speech rights of the U.S.-based groups but did not decide the question over whether applying it to the overseas entities with which they are affiliated also is unconstitutional.

Children ride scooters across the plaza at the United States Supreme Court, following the government's notice to halt all building tours due to the (COVID-19) coronavirus, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 17, 2020. REUTERS/Tom Brenner

The Trump administration argued that foreign entities like those affiliated with the nonprofits do not have free speech rights that can be enforced in U.S. courts and that the rights of the American groups therefore were not violated.

The law, enacted under Republican former President George W. Bush, intended to bar funding for organizations that operate programs overseas but do not have a blanket policy opposing prostitution and sex trafficking. The United States has spent billions of dollars to fight HIV/AIDS overseas.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham)

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