Agency For International Development v. Alliance For Open Society International, Inc.

133 S.Ct. 2321 (2013)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

The Leadership Act outlined a comprehensive strategy to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS around the world. Congress authorized the appropriation of billions of dollars to fund efforts by nongovernmental organizations to assist in the fight. The Act imposes two related conditions on that funding: First, no funds made available by the Act “may be used to promote or advocate the legalization or practice of prostitution or sex trafficking.” And second, no funds may be used by an organization “that does not have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking.”

Ps are a group of domestic organizations engaged in combating HIV/AIDS overseas. Ps fear that adopting a policy explicitly opposing prostitution may alienate certain host governments, and may diminish the effectiveness of some of their programs by making it more difficult to work with prostitutes in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Ps sought a declaratory judgment that D’s implementation violated their First Amendment rights. The District Court granted such a preliminary injunction, and the D appealed. USAID issued guidelines, and the Court of Appeals remanded the case to consider whether the preliminary injunction was still appropriate in light of the new guidelines. The Court issued a new preliminary judgment, and D appealed. It upheld the injunction. The court reasoned, “the government may not place a condition on the receipt of a benefit or subsidy that infringes upon the recipient’s constitutionally protected rights, even if the government has no obligation to offer the benefit in the first instance.” D appealed.