In one of four decisions handed down today, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of the law making it a crime to knowingly provide “material support” to designated foreign terrorist organizations. The law was challenged on First Amendment grounds in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, and Humanitarian Law Project v. Holder (pdf) . Solicitor General Elena Kagan, now a Supreme Court nominee, defended the statute at the oral argument in February, in opposition to Georgetown University Law Center professor David Cole.
Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority that the law is not unconstitutionally vague, but he offered some criticism of the government’s position in the case. Roberts wrote that the government had gone “too far” by claiming that only conduct, not speech, was involved in the litigation.
