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SUPREME
COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
Syllabus
AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ET AL . v.
ALLIANCE FOR OPEN SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL, INC., ET AL .
CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR
THE SECOND CIRCUIT
No. 19–177. Argued May 5, 2020—Decided June 29, 2020
In the United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS,
Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003, as relevant here, Congress limited the
funding of American and foreign nongovernmental organizations to those with “a policy
explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking.” 22 U. S. C. §7631(f). In 2013, that Policy Requirement, as it is
known, was held to be an unconstitutional restraint on free speech when applied
to American organizations. Agency for Int’l Development v. Alliance for Open Society Int’l, Inc.,
570 U. S. 205. Those American
organizations now challenge the requirement’s constitutionality when applied to
their legally distinct foreign affiliates.
The District Court held that the Government was prohibited from
enforcing the requirement against the foreign affiliates, and the Second
Circuit affirmed.
Held: Because
plaintiffs’ foreign affiliates possess no First Amendment rights, applying the
Policy Requirement to them is not unconstitutional. Two bedrock legal
principles lead to this conclusion. As a
matter of American constitutional law, foreign citizens outside U. S. territory
do not possess rights under the U. S. Constitution. See, e.g., Boumediene v. Bush, 553 U. S. 723, 770–771. And as a matter of American corporate law,
separately incorporated organizations are separate legal units with distinct
legal rights and obligations. See, e.g., Dole Food Co. v. Patrickson, 538
U. S. 468, 474–475. That conclusion
corresponds to Congress’s historical practice of conditioning funding to foreign
organizations, which helps ensure that U. S. foreign aid serves U. S.
interests.
Plaintiffs’
counterarguments are unpersuasive. First, they claim
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