Material Support
Existing federal laws make it illegal to provide “material support” to groups that the government has designated as “terrorist.” Cutting off support of terrorist activity is an important and legitimate part of the United States’ counter-terrorism strategy. Our government should have the tools needed to apprehend and punish not just terrorist leaders, but also those who work to facilitate and enable acts of terrorism. But in providing the legal authority to prohibit and punish such conduct, it is essential that the law respect constitutional freedoms.
In their current form, these laws raise serious concerns under the First and Fifth Amendments, because they define “material support” so expansively and vaguely as to criminalize pure speech furthering only lawful, nonviolent ends. The legal prohibitions are not limited to those who engage in such speech to support the illegal or terrorist acts of so-called terrorist organizations. They criminalize even speech that is intended to further, and in fact only furthers, lawful, peaceful, and nonviolent activities. Indeed, the criminal bar is so sweeping that it applies even to aid that is designed to reduce a group’s resort to violence by encouraging the peaceful resolution of disputes, and even where the aid can be shown to have had precisely that beneficial effect. In addition, because the law likely criminalizes any conduct undertaken under a designated group’s direction or control, it appears to penalize pure association. These aspects of the “material support” definition go far beyond the criminalization of financial support, and trench on important First and Fifth Amendment rights.
