Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society, Inc. (U.S. Supreme Court)

The United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003 required any group that accepted government funds for combating HIV/AIDS abroad to have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking. Non-profit recipients of Leadership Act funds sued, alleging that the prostitution-related condition violated their First Amendment rights. The district court and court of appeals granted them a preliminary injunction from which the government appealed to the Supreme Court. We drafted an amicus brief for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and Christian Legal Society, arguing that the government’s position would justify unconstitutional abridgments of speech on many subjects other than prostitution. The Supreme Court sided with the non-profits, holding that the Leadership Act’s conditions violated the First Amendment.