Alliance for Open Society International, Inc. v. United States Agency for
Opinion
BARRINGTON D. PARKER, Circuit Judge:
*107
In
Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society International, Inc.
,
The Government subsequently interpreted the Supreme Court's opinion as allowing the Policy Requirement to continue to be applied to foreign affiliates. Plaintiffs disagreed and sought and obtained a permanent injunction in the District Court, which concluded that AOSI did not allow the Policy Requirement to be applied to plaintiffs' foreign affiliates. The Government appeals and we are required to determine the narrow issue of whether the Government's reading of the Supreme Court's decision is correct. We agree with the District Court that the Government's reading is foreclosed by that opinion and, consequently, we affirm the order below.
BACKGROUND
The background of this litigation is well known and fully described in the various judicial decisions that have been issued: the Honorable Victor Marrero's thorough and well reasoned decision in 2006, our 2011 opinion affirming him, and the Supreme Court's 2013 opinion affirming us.
See
Alliance for Open Soc'y Int'l v. U.S. Agency for Int'l Dev.
,
In 2003, Congress passed the Leadership Act, which authorized the appropriation of billions of dollars to nongovernmental organizations to assist the worldwide fight against HIV/AIDS and other diseases. The Leadership Act contains the Policy Requirement, which states that "[n]o funds ... may be used to provide assistance to any group or organization that does not have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking."
Plaintiffs are several domestic organizations that fight HIV/AIDS abroad. Many plaintiffs carry out their aid work through legally distinct affiliates that together constitute global families of closely aligned entities. For example, plaintiff InterAction is a network of U.S.-based humanitarian organizations and contains, as a member, the domestic entity Save the Children Federation, Inc., which is a part of the global set of entities operating as Save the Children, an international aid organization that focuses on children's health. Save the Children Federation, Inc., in turn, is part of the Save the Children Association, a non-profit Swiss association that owns the Save the Children logo and maintains criteria for Save the Children members. There are over 30 distinct Save the Children entities incorporated around the world in addition to in the United States, such as in Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Japan, Norway, South Africa, Spain, and Swaziland. These *108 entities comprise Save the Children, and share the same name, logo, brand, and mission, even though they are distinct legal entities incorporated in various jurisdictions worldwide.
As plaintiffs explain and the record reflects, maintaining a unified global identity, branding, and approach enhances the ability of an organization like Save the Children to perform its aid mission. Moreover, various legal and administrative considerations encourage (and sometimes require) such international aid organizations to operate as formally legally distinct entities, despite otherwise being unified. As an example, the president and chief executive officer of plaintiff Pathfinder International attested that defendant United States Agency for International Development ("USAID") gives preference for Leadership Act contracts to NGOs that are incorporated outside the United States and sought to increase direct partnerships with local organizations in order to enhance the long-term effectiveness of aid delivery. USAID also limits a significant number of potential grants to organizations incorporated outside of the United States. Moreover, some foreign governments require NGOs to be incorporated in their countries in order to be permitted to undertake public health work there. Overall, factors such as these have caused international aid organizations to be organized as formally legally distinct entities while operating with a unified and consistent identity, mission, and work. As a consequence, these organizations appear to the public as unified entities. Throughout this litigation, plaintiffs have emphasized that, while they do not support prostitution, they would not include in their mission statements a policy officially expressing an opposition to prostitution because, among other things, effectively fighting diseases like HIV/AIDS often requires direct involvement with sex-worker communities.
In 2005, plaintiffs sued to enjoin the Government's implementation of the Policy Requirement. As noted, the District Court issued a preliminary injunction, which we affirmed on appeal.
1
The Supreme Court granted certiorari and also affirmed, holding that "[t]he Policy Requirement compels as a condition of federal funding the affirmation of a belief that by its nature cannot be confined within the scope of the Government program. In so doing, it violates the First Amendment and cannot be sustained."
AOSI
,
After the Supreme Court's decision, the Government nevertheless continued to apply the Policy Requirement to plaintiffs' foreign affiliates. In January 2015, after receiving letter briefing, the District Court converted its preliminary injunction to a permanent injunction barring the Government from imposing the Policy Requirement on plaintiffs or their affiliates. The Government appealed, and we stayed the permanent injunction pending this appeal.
STANDARD OF REVIEW
A district court's decision to issue a permanent injunction is reviewed for abuse of discretion, as "[t]he decision to grant or deny permanent injunctive relief is an act of equitable discretion by the district court."
eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C.
,
*109
bases its decision on an error of law or uses the wrong legal standard; (2) bases its decision on a clearly erroneous factual finding; or (3) reaches a conclusion that, though not necessarily the product of a legal error or a clearly erroneous factual finding, cannot be located within the range of permissible decisions."
Klipsch Grp., Inc. v. ePRO E-Commerce Ltd.
,
DISCUSSION
I.
The narrow issue before this Court is whether applying the Policy Requirement to plaintiffs' closely aligned foreign affiliates violates plaintiffs' own First Amendment rights. The Supreme Court's decision considered this question and resolved it in plaintiffs' favor. Consequently, we conclude that the District Court did not abuse its discretion in issuing its permanent injunction. 2
In
AOSI
, the Supreme Court explained that requiring the recipient of government funds to adopt the Government's view on the issue of prostitution and sex trafficking was a violation of plaintiffs' First Amendment rights.
The Court therefore made clear that forcing an entity's affiliate to speak the Government's message unconstitutionally impairs that entity's own ability to speak. As Chief Justice Roberts noted, where, as here, an affiliate is "clearly identified" with the recipient of government funds, the recipient can express beliefs that contradict the speech of its affiliate "only at the price of evident hypocrisy."
*110 to the present iteration of this case as we must, we hold that the speech of a recipient who rejects the Government's message is unconstitutionally restricted when it has an affiliate who is forced to speak the Government's contrasting message. 4
These principles decide this appeal. Here, the affiliates are clearly identified with plaintiffs, and to require the affiliates to abide by the Policy Requirement would require the closely related-and often indistinguishable-plaintiffs to be seen as simultaneously asserting two conflicting messages. This is the "evident hypocrisy" to which the Chief Justice referred: when the Government requires contrasting, hypocritical messages between domestic and foreign affiliates by making one speak the Government's message, this requirement infringes the speech of the domestic affiliate and, in so doing, violates the First Amendment. Id . Indeed, the Government itself acknowledges that forced hypocrisy can impair an entity's ability to speak: "It may be true that when two organizations are closely linked, in some circumstances the speech of one can be seen as the speech of both." See Gov't Reply at 9.
The Government's arguments in this appeal are unpersuasive. It mainly contends that foreign organizations like plaintiffs' affiliates do not possess First Amendment rights. But the Government as well as our dissenting colleague misunderstands the Supreme Court's decision in
AOSI
. It is the First Amendment rights of the
domestic plaintiffs
that are violated when the Policy Requirement compels them to "choose between forced speech and paying 'the price of evident hypocrisy.' "
All. for Open Soc'y Int'l, Inc. v. U.S. Agency for Int'l Dev.
,
The Government also contends that the contrasting speech between domestic and foreign affiliates is irrelevant because, following the Supreme Court's decision, the Policy Requirement may no longer be applied to domestic organizations, and so domestic organizations may now say what they want and still receive government funds. But this argument also misses the point. It is the domestic organization's speech, not its funding, that is at stake when its affiliate is forced to speak the Government's message. If the Government *111 is right, then Chief Justice Roberts was wrong. We part ways with our dissenting colleague because we believe that it is the Supreme Court's decision and not the Government's brief that controls this appeal.
The Government finally argues that our decisions in
Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. v. Agency for International Development
,
Nor can Planned Parenthood. In that case, the government refused to fund foreign NGOs who offered abortion as a family-planning technique. We weighed allegations "that it is impractical for United States citizens or organizations to engage in abortion-related activities abroad without the cooperation of foreign organizations and that the Standard Clause deters many of the most logical and effective foreign partners." Id. at 64 (internal quotation marks omitted). But critically, the government did not request that foreign NGOs explicitly adopt a policy of not advocating for abortion. As such, the domestic NGOs and partner foreign NGOs were not compelled to make contradictory statements regarding their core objectives as plaintiffs and their foreign affiliates are in this case.
The policies in these cases did not compel speech, did not involve closely identified organizations, and, unlike this case, did not burden the free speech rights of domestic organizations.
Planned Parenthood
,
II.
The Government also argues that the District Court violated Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65 by imposing the permanent injunction on the basis of letter briefing and in the absence of a formal motion and a full hearing. The Government also argues that the injunction is unclear because its reference to plaintiffs "or their domestic and foreign affiliates" is imprecise. We see no abuse of discretion.
There is no requirement that a District Court must wait for a formal motion and hold a hearing to issue a permanent injunction. This conclusion is, in our view, particularly sound in a case such as this, involving nearly a decade of litigation,
*112
multiple appeals and resolution by the Supreme Court. In any event, Rule 65 requires hearings for only preliminary injunctions, not permanent injunctions.
Beck v. Levering
,
Nor does the injunction violate Rule 65(d) 's requirement that an injunction "describe in reasonable detail ... the act or acts restrained or required." Fed. R. Civ. P. 65(d)(1)(C). We are confident that the term "affiliate" is sufficiently clear so that the Government will be able "to ascertain from the four corners of the order precisely what acts are forbidden."
In re Baldwin-United Corp.
,
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, the order of the District Court is AFFIRMED.
Today, a majority panel of this Court requires the United States to fund the activities of foreign organizations, which have no constitutional rights, despite their refusal to comply with our government's funding condition. There is no support for such a startling holding. The majority misreads the Supreme Court's 2013 decision in this case, which only held that the First Amendment protects
United States-based
organizations from being required to adopt a particular policy position as a condition of federal funding and to conform their privately-funded activities to that position. The majority decision extends the Supreme Court's holding to an unspecified group of "clearly identified" foreign "affiliates," or "co-branded" foreign partner organizations-an issue that was not before the Supreme Court, and a result that is clearly foreclosed by two of this Court's precedential decisions,
Center for Reproductive Law & Policy v. Bush
,
Background
I. Procedural History
A. 2005-2013: United States Organizations Challenge Policy Requirement
A close reading of the procedural history of this case clarifies that the Supreme Court never had any reason to consider whether
The United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003 ("Leadership Act"),
No funds ... may be used to provide assistance to any group or organization that does not have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking, except that this subsection shall not apply to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the World *114 Health Organization, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative or to any United Nations agency.
§ 7631(f). Only the second condition-the "Policy Requirement"-is at issue.
In 2004, the Government began requiring foreign organizations that applied for Leadership Act funding to comply with § 7631(f) by adopting an affirmative anti-prostitution policy.
See
U.S. Agency for Int'l Dev. ("USAID"), Acquisition & Assistance Policy Directive ("AAPD") 04-04 (Revised) (Feb. 26, 2004);
see also
All. for Open Soc'y Int'l v. U.S. Agency for Int'l Dev.
,
In 2006, when the District Court granted Plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction, it distinguished our cases regarding funding restrictions to foreign nongovernmental organizations ("NGOs").
All. for Open Soc'y Int'l
,
In the instant case, as Plaintiffs have pointed out, the restrictions at issue apply to NGOs based in the United States, restrictions which extend to these NGOs' speech within [the] United States (for example, a conference on sexual rights and sexual health that AOSI will co-sponsor in this country in June of 2006). Defendants simply have not made an adequate showing as to why such domestic, private speech activity should be necessarily classified as a matter of American foreign policy.
In August 2006, the Government appealed the preliminary injunction. In 2007, we remanded for the District Court to consider whether new federal guidelines provided an adequate constitutional safeguard for domestic organizations bound by the Policy Requirement.
All. for Open Soc'y Int'l v. U.S. Agency for Int'l Dev.
,
[T]he Government's organizational partners that have adopted a policy opposing prostitution and sex-trafficking may, consistent with the policy requirement, maintain an affiliation with separate organizations that do not have such a policy, provided that such affiliations do not threaten the integrity of the Government's programs and its message opposing prostitution and sex trafficking, as specified in this guidance. To maintain program integrity, adequate separation as outlined in this guidance is required between an affiliate which expresses views on prostitution and sex trafficking contrary to the government's message and any federally-funded partner organization.
Dep't of Health and Human Servs. ("HHS"), Guidance Regarding Section 301(f) of the United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Act of 2003,
Plaintiffs' 2008 declarations argued that the Affiliate Guidelines did not provide an adequate alternative channel for communicating their own viewpoints on prostitution, in large part because of the degree of legal separation that the Guidelines required between an organization receiving Leadership Act funding and an affiliate organization expressing views on prostitution that deviated from the Policy Requirement. The 2008 declarations also discussed the legal and practical difficulties of establishing affiliates in foreign countries, implying that they did not currently have any affiliates operating in those countries. In particular, declarations from the presidents of Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere ("CARE") and Pathfinder International described how the United States-based organizations operated directly in several foreign countries through "registered branch offices" or "field offices," and did not mention the existence of any legally separate affiliate organizations operating in those countries. 3
On remand, Plaintiffs moved to add Interaction and Global Health Council ("GHC") to the lawsuit. These are umbrella organizations for public health NGOs, and GHC includes foreign members. However, Plaintiffs explicitly limited the relief sought to Interaction's and GHC's United States-based members. And Plaintiffs' motion to extend the preliminary injunction to Interaction and GHC again exempted only United States-based sub-grantee organizations from the Policy Requirement.
In 2008, the District Court reaffirmed its 2006 preliminary injunction and extended that injunction to Interaction and GHC.
All. for Open Soc'y Int'l v. U.S. Agency for Int'l Dev.
,
In 2011, this Court upheld the District Court's preliminary injunctions.
All. for Open Soc'y Int'l v. U.S. Agency for Int'l Dev.
,
The Agencies' reliance on DKT Memorial Fund Ltd. v. Agency for International Development ,887 F.2d 275 (D.C. Cir. 1989), is misplaced, as that case centered around a restriction on the First Amendment activities of foreign NGOs receiving U.S. government funds. The challenge here is to the impact of the Policy Requirement on domestic NGOs. Indeed, the Agencies have applied the Policy Requirement to foreign organizations since its inception, without challenge. This litigation arose only after the government reversed course and began also applying the Requirement to U.S.-based organizations like AOSI and Pathfinder. The Policy Requirement compels domestic NGOs to adopt a policy statement on a particular issue, and prohibits them from engaging in certain expression at, for example, conferences and forums throughout the United States. These factors convince us that the speech is far more of a domestic than a foreign concern.
Id. at 238-39. The Court agreed with the District Court that the Affiliate Guidelines could not cure the First Amendment violation of requiring United States-based organizations to affirmatively adopt an anti-prostitution policy. Id. at 239.
Before the Supreme Court, Plaintiffs made it clear that they raised only an "as-applied" challenge to the constitutionality of the Policy Requirement. Brief for Respondents at 42 n.11,
U.S. Agency for Int'l Dev. v. All. for Open Soc'y Int'l
,
In 2013, the Supreme Court held that the Policy Requirement violated the First Amendment rights of United States-based NGOs by conditioning funding on adoption of the Government's point of view in a way that could not be cabined to the Leadership Act-funded programs but would also affect the organizations' privately-funded activities.
U.S. Agency for Int'l Dev. v. All. for Open Soc'y Int'l
,
Not a single reference was made to the Government's ability to impose the Policy Requirement on foreign organizations in the Supreme Court's decision itself, in the parties' briefs, or at oral argument. Tellingly, the Supreme Court made no mention of our decisions in Center for Reproductive Law & Policy (" CRLP ") and Planned Parenthood because at issue before it was the Policy Requirement's application to domestic organizations and not foreign partner organizations, as in those two cases.
B. 2014-2017 District Court Proceedings: Plaintiffs Challenge Government's Application of the Policy Requirement to Their Foreign "Affiliates"
As discussed above, from 2004 until 2014, the Plaintiffs never challenged the Government's requirement that all foreign organizations which applied for Leadership Act funds or received Leadership Act sub-grants from domestic organizations adopt an anti-prostitution policy. In this vein, in September 2014, the Government issued funding notices that explicitly exempted all United States-based organizations from the Policy Requirement but continued to apply the Policy Requirement to foreign organizations.
See
HHS Guidance,
In its pre-motion responses and at an October 2014 pre-motion conference, the Government strongly contested this position, pointing to this Court's decision in Planned Parenthood and arguing that the Supreme Court had not considered the Policy Requirement's application to foreign organizations in its 2013 decision because the Plaintiffs had never challenged that practice. The Government also argued that the District Court should require further submissions, including a formal motion and opposition, before issuing an injunction. Specifically, in its October 30, 2014, submission, the Government stated:
There are numerous factual and legal issues that have not been addressed at any stage of this litigation that are implicated by [P]laintiffs' pre-motion letters, including ... the applicability of constitutional rights to foreign organizations even when affiliated with U.S. organizations, the degree of affiliation that exists in fact, and many others. ... Additionally, the parties must be afforded an opportunity to respond to each other's submissions provided to the Court today.
In January 2015, without any further submissions or hearings, the District Court granted a permanent injunction.
*118
All. for Open Soc'y Int'l v. U.S. Agency for Int'l Dev.
,
In 2017, the Government moved for reconsideration of the District Court's 2015 injunction, arguing that the order did not comply with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65 's requirement that injunctions be clear and definite because the Government could not ascertain which foreign organizations the injunction applied to. Plaintiffs opposed reconsideration. Plaintiffs stated that "[w]hile the injunction as written is sufficiently clear and specific to take immediate effect, Plaintiffs would have no objection to the Court's addition of language explaining that 'clearly identified' foreign affiliates are those that share the same name, trademark, and public branding ( e.g. , corporate logo) as Plaintiffs ...." Plaintiffs provided examples of "clearly identified" foreign affiliates, such as CARE India and Pathfinder India, and contrasted their definition with the Government's Affiliate Guidelines. Finally, Plaintiffs stated that they "stand ready to work with the government to address individual questions and to provide the government lists of their affiliates-as they have done on prior occasions-which would identify foreign affiliates that share Plaintiffs' same name, trademark, and public branding." The Government argued that the Plaintiffs' definition was not sufficient because it did not identify a controlling legal standard and because a shared name, trademark, and public branding alone would not necessarily demonstrate that a foreign organization is so closely tied to a domestic organization that the domestic organization's First Amendment rights would be violated if the Government requires the foreign organization to adopt an anti-prostitution policy in order to receive Leadership Act funding.
In June 2017, the District Court denied reconsideration and lifted its stay of the 2015 order.
All. for Open Soc'y Int'l v. U.S. Agency for Int'l Dev.
,
*119 Insofar as the Government needs any additional guidance in defining "affiliate" or identifying specific entities that would be covered by the definition, Plaintiffs have offered a reasonable suggestion to develop clarifying language. The parties therefore should meet and confer in an effort to propose an agreed-upon response within thirty days of the date of this Order. The parties are directed to submit a report on the status of such discussions at that time.
II. Proceedings in this Court
The Government timely appealed both the 2015 injunction and the 2017 denial of reconsideration. 5 In its opening brief, the Government argues that (1) its funding restriction is constitutional as applied to foreign organizations, and thus the District Court erred in extending the injunction to Plaintiffs' foreign affiliates, and (2) the injunction does not "state its terms specifically" or "describe in reasonable detail ... the act or acts restrained or required" as demanded by Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 65 because it is unclear which foreign organizations the injunction applies to. In response, the Plaintiffs argue that the Supreme Court's 2013 decision in this case prohibits the Government from applying its funding restriction to Plaintiffs' "clearly identified" foreign affiliates. They attempt to distinguish CRLP and Planned Parenthood , which upheld a similar funding restriction on foreign organizations, based on Plaintiffs' close association with their foreign affiliates, which they argue will result in "evident hypocrisy" if the foreign affiliates are forced to adopt an anti-prostitution policy. Plaintiffs also argue that the terms of the injunction are clear and specific enough to give the Government notice of what is prohibited.
*120 The Government replies that (1) Plaintiffs mischaracterize the Supreme Court's 2013 decision, which did not address the application of the Policy Requirement to Plaintiffs' foreign affiliates or any other foreign organization, (2) the injunction is not clear enough for the Government to determine which foreign organizations qualify as Plaintiffs' "clearly identified" foreign affiliates, and (3) the District Court should have allowed further briefing before issuing the permanent injunction. In July 2017, another panel of this Court stayed the injunction insofar as it applies to foreign organizations, including Plaintiffs' foreign affiliates.
Discussion
We review a district court's grant of a permanent injunction for abuse of discretion.
Davis v. Shah
,
An injunction must "state its terms specifically" and "describe in reasonable detail-and not by referring to the complaint or other document-the act or acts restrained or required." Fed. R. Civ. P. 65(d)(1)(B)-(C). Rule 65"reflects Congress' concern with the dangers inherent in the threat of a contempt citation for violation of an order so vague that an enjoined party may unwittingly and unintentionally transcend its bounds."
Corning Inc. v. PicVue Elecs., Ltd.
,
To obtain a permanent injunction, a party "must succeed on the merits and show 'the absence of an adequate remedy at law and irreparable harm if the relief is not granted.' "
Roach v. Morse
,
I. Constitutional Issue
Although "freedom of speech prohibits the government from telling people what they must say,"
All. for Open Soc'y Int'l
,
The Government does not dispute that it may no longer apply the Policy Requirement to any domestic organizations. The only remaining question is whether the Government may apply the Policy Requirement to foreign organizations, including but not limited to, Plaintiffs' foreign affiliates. Because the District Court legally erred when it enjoined the Government from requiring foreign organizations that receive Leadership Act funding to adopt an anti-prostitution policy, I would reverse the injunction.
A. Supreme Court's 2013 Decision
As illustrated by the procedural history detailed above, Plaintiffs' and the District Court's reliance on the Supreme Court's 2013 decision, at this time and in these circumstances, is misplaced. The constitutionality of the Policy Requirement, as applied to any and all foreign organizations, was never contemplated by the Supreme Court, as it was never challenged by the Plaintiffs. The Plaintiffs and District Court misread an excerpt from one paragraph of the Supreme Court's 2013 decision to state that the Government could not constitutionally enforce the Policy Requirement against Plaintiffs' foreign affiliates. The relevant paragraph reads as follows:
When we have noted the importance of affiliates in this context, it has been because they allow an organization bound by a funding condition to exercise its First Amendment rights outside the scope of the federal program. Affiliates cannot serve that purpose when the condition is that a funding recipient espouse a specific belief as its own. If the affiliate is distinct from the recipient, the arrangement does not afford a means for the recipient to express its beliefs. If the affiliate is more clearly identified with the recipient, the recipient can express those beliefs only at the price of evident hypocrisy.
All. for Open Soc'y Int'l
,
Plaintiffs also suggest that the Supreme Court's 2013 decision must have applied to foreign organizations as well as domestic organizations because it is a "facial invalidation" of the Policy Requirement. Not so. Plaintiffs repeatedly assured the Supreme Court that they brought only an as-applied challenge. Brief for Respondents at 42 n.11,
U.S. Agency for Int'l Dev. v. All. for Open Soc'y Int'l
,
B. Applicable Case Law
Because the Supreme Court's 2013 decision and the prior decisions in this litigation did not decide whether the Government may require foreign organizations to comply with the Policy Requirement, we must apply controlling case law upholding restrictions on funding to foreign organizations.
It is undisputed that Plaintiffs' foreign affiliates lack First Amendment rights because they are foreign organizations operating outside the United States.
See, e.g.
,
Zadvydas v. Davis
,
Because the Plaintiffs may now receive Leadership Act funding without regard to whether they have an affirmative anti-prostitution policy-in other words, the Government is no longer compelling the Plaintiffs to adopt any particular position on prostitution as a condition of Leadership Act funding-the issue in this case is no longer about Plaintiffs' free speech rights. Instead, the current constitutional question turns on Plaintiffs' right to associate with foreign organizations. Plaintiffs' argument that their own free speech rights are impacted by their foreign affiliates' compelled speech assumes that Plaintiffs' right to associate with foreign affiliates *123 outweighs Congress's ability to regulate funding to foreign organizations.
The Supreme Court has held that United States citizens' First Amendment right to associate with foreigners (aliens) does not override Congress's plenary power to decide which aliens to admit to the United States and which to exclude.
Kleindienst v. Mandel
,
We have previously rejected United States-based organizations' First Amendment challenges to a funding restriction that applied only to foreign organizations.
Ctr. for Reprod. Law & Pol'y v. Bush
,
Were the courts to allow challenges to foreign aid programs on the ground that the government's subsidy of a particular viewpoint abroad encourages the foreign recipients of American aid not to speak or associate with Americans opposed to that viewpoint, the political branches would find it impossible to conduct foreign policy.
Plaintiffs argue that
Planned Parenthood
and
CRLP
are distinguishable because the Policy Requirement compels speech, whereas the Mexico City Policy only restricted speech. However, because the compelled speech and unconstitutional conditions doctrines have only been applied in the context of restrictions on funding to domestic organizations and United States-based organizations are no longer bound by the Policy Requirement (remember, foreign organizations operating outside the United States have no First Amendment rights), this distinction does not change the outcome. Further, although it is true that the Mexico City Policy does not require foreign organizations to affirmatively state an opposition to abortion, the policy does not distinguish between United States-funded and privately-funded activities and has been interpreted broadly: to receive USAID funding, a foreign NGO must certify that it "will not, while receiving assistance under the grant, perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in AID-recipient countries or provide funding to other foreign nongovernmental organizations that conduct such activities."
Ctr. for Reprod. Law & Pol'y
,
It bears repeating that Plaintiffs never challenged the Government's application of the Policy Requirement to their "co-branded" or "clearly identified" foreign affiliates until October 2014. No reference was made to any "co-branded" or "clearly identified" foreign affiliates that actually existed during the earlier stages of this litigation, and the majority's argument to the contrary misreads portions of the record in which the parties and Supreme Court Justices discussed the practical barriers to establishing purely hypothetical affiliate organizations that would have served as an alternative channel for the domestic organizations to express their own anti-prostitution views under the Government's Affiliate Guidelines. And although the Government has been requiring all foreign organizations, including Plaintiffs' "clearly identified" foreign affiliates, to comply with the Policy Requirement throughout this litigation, 11 Plaintiffs have only discussed the harm they face in hypothetical terms. They have failed to identify even one specific instance where a foreign affiliate's position on prostitution actually resulted in harm such as lost Leadership Act funding, lost private funding, or even inconsistent messaging (in other words, "evident hypocrisy"). Moreover, any danger of "evident hypocrisy" resulting from the foreign and domestic organizations' inconsistent positions on prostitution can be avoided entirely if the Plaintiffs' foreign affiliates use private funding rather than applying for Leadership Act funding. In this situation, the Plaintiffs would remain eligible for Leadership Act funding, but would be unable to sub-grant Leadership Act funds to their foreign affiliates. Alternatively, as the Government suggests, the Plaintiffs and their foreign affiliates may use disclaimers (i.e., stating specifically that their views on prostitution are solely their own and do not reflect their international affiliates' views) to reduce any confusion regarding their differing approaches to prostitution.
The lack of certainty over which foreign organizations qualify as affiliates is cause for further concern. Notably, the District Court and Plaintiffs seem to have ascribed different meanings to the term "affiliate." In its 2017 order denying reconsideration, the District Court referred to the following definitions: (1) "a corporation that is related to another corporation by shareholding or other means of control; a subsidiary, parent, or sibling corporation," (quoting Black's Law Dictionary 69 (10th ed. 2014) ); and (2) "a person or organization officially attached to a larger body," (quoting Oxford English Dictionary).
All. for Open Soc'y Int'l
,
I recognize that Plaintiffs have a practical interest in maintaining policy positions that are consistent with their foreign partners, especially where the United States-based and foreign organizations use the same name, signs, and logos, and attempt to "speak with one voice." Requiring Plaintiffs' foreign affiliates to adopt an anti-prostitution policy if they apply for Leadership Act grants or receive sub-grants from Plaintiffs may result in inconsistent messaging between Plaintiffs and their foreign affiliates, or require Plaintiffs to either go back to operating directly in foreign countries (re-opening the branch offices they referred to in their 2008 declarations) or to seek out new foreign partner organizations for Leadership Act projects. If anything, this dilemma raises a constitutional question of whether domestic organizations have a First Amendment right to associate so closely with foreign organizations and whether that associative right outweighs the Government's interest in limiting its funding to foreign organizations. However, this constitutional question was
not
decided by the Supreme Court in 2013 and has never been briefed in this case. Instead, the Plaintiffs and majority seem to assume that a domestic and foreign organization must be treated as
one entity
for First Amendment free speech purposes because the two organizations share the same name, brand, and mission. Neither the Supreme Court, nor any court, has ever held as much. In sum, I am unconvinced that any inconvenience or inconsistent policy positions that may result from the application of the Policy Requirement to Plaintiffs' "clearly identified" or "closely aligned" foreign affiliates amounts to a violation of Plaintiffs' own First Amendment rights, especially because our decisions in
Planned Parenthood
and
CRLP
held that United States-based organizations do not have an unlimited right to collaborate with foreign organizations. Given the lack of intervening Supreme Court authority, we remain bound by
Planned Parenthood
and
CRLP
, and those decisions control the outcome here.
See
United States v. Wilkerson
,
For the reasons discussed above, I would reverse the District Court's injunction and hold that the Policy Requirement may constitutionally be applied to any foreign organization, including Plaintiffs' "clearly identified" foreign affiliates.
I respectfully dissent.
Judge Straub dissented in 2011 on the basis that the Policy Requirement did not violate the First Amendment, a position that the Supreme Court subsequently rejected squarely.
See
A plaintiff seeking a permanent injunction against government action taken pursuant to a statutory or regulatory scheme must demonstrate an entitlement to such equitable relief by showing (1) irreparable injury and (2) actual success on the merits.
See
Amoco Prod. Co. v. Village of Gambell
,
It was immaterial to the Supreme Court that an affiliate may be foreign-incorporated. The AOSI opinion speaks only of the harm to plaintiffs due to their affiliation, not about the nature of the affiliated entity. The Supreme Court was keenly aware of the foreign nature of plaintiffs' work and of their partnerships and affiliations with foreign-incorporated organizations. This awareness was on full display at oral argument, where the Government argued that there would be no hypocrisy between a plaintiff and an affiliate because the entities would be required to be sufficiently separate. Justice Ginsburg, for example, apparently rejected this premise, noting that this case differed from those in which forming a separate subsidiary to abide by a funding condition was "a simple matter of corporate reorganization" that cured any constitutional problems with the funding condition. Transcript of Oral Argument at 18. She stated that "getting an NGO ... recognized in dozens of foreign countries is no simple thing to accomplish" and using a foreign affiliate to speak the Government's message and collect federal funds is "differen[t] in this international setting."
The dissent attempts to characterize this case as one involving freedom of association. This approach misunderstands both the nature of the right at issue and the Supreme Court's decision. The right that plaintiffs seek to vindicate is the right to free speech: to be able to speak freely without being either compelled to speak or allowed to speak only "at the price of evident hypocrisy."
AOSI
,
All references to the U.S. Code are to Title 22, unless otherwise indicated.
Those foreign organizations included the Soros Foundations in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, which implemented a Leadership Act-funded project in Central Asia in partnership with the U.S.-based Alliance for Open Society International, one of the Plaintiffs in this litigation.
See All. for
Open Soc'y Int'l
,
The 2008 Gayle declaration described CARE as a member of CARE International, "a federation of 12 other CARE nonprofit members incorporated separately in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Thailand, and the United Kingdom." However, the declaration only discussed the Government's application of the Policy Requirement to CARE itself and did not further mention CARE International or its foreign members.
The majority emphasizes an October 2014 declaration from Save the Children's executive vice president and chief operating officer describing that organization's foreign affiliate structure. As noted above, the 2008 declarations stated that Plaintiffs worked directly in foreign countries through local branch offices and did not highlight the role of any foreign affiliates. Save the Children's executive officers did not submit a declaration in this litigation prior to October 2014.
The Government's appeal of the 2015 injunction was withdrawn and reinstated several times while the parties engaged in mediation. In March 2017, this Court reinstated the appeal, but held it in abeyance pending the District Court's determination of the motion to reconsider. This Court reactivated the appeal on June 12, 2017.
As noted above, this Court distinguished the Government's enforcement of restrictions on domestic organizations from cases involving foreign organizations in its 2011 decision in this litigation.
All. for Open Soc'y Int'l
,
The Mexico City Policy originated with President Reagan in 1984.
See
Ctr. for Reprod. Law & Pol'y
,
Domestic NGOs that receive Government funding for family planning may carry out privately-funded abortion-related activities and pro-abortion advocacy so long as the organizations maintain adequate physical and financial separation between federally-funded and abortion-related projects.
See
Rust v. Sullivan
,
In a case involving the same restriction, the D.C. Circuit expressed skepticism of the plaintiffs' argument, but ultimately dismissed a First Amendment right to associate claim on ripeness grounds.
DKT Memorial Fund Ltd. v. U.S. Agency for Int'l Dev.
,
For example, Save the Children reportedly complies with the Mexico City Policy. See Benjamin Kentish, Sweden Vows To Stop Giving Aid To Any Organisations That Follow Donald Trump's Anti-Abortion Rule , The Independent (July 12, 2017, 4:27 PM), https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/sweden-donald-trump-anti-abortionrule-foreign-aide-ban-mexico-policy-organisations-pro-life-a7837591.html (stating that Swedish officials identified Save the Children as a group of organizations that had adopted the Mexico City Policy).
While the District Court enjoined the Policy Requirement as to Plaintiffs' foreign affiliates in 2015, that injunction has been stayed throughout the litigation.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- ALLIANCE FOR OPEN SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL, INC., Open Society Institute, Pathfinder International Inc., Global Health Council, and Interaction, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. UNITED STATES AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Mark Green, in His Official Capacity as Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, Robert R. Redfield, in His Official Capacity as Director of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and His Successors, Alex M. Azar II, in His Official Capacity as Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, and His Successors, United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and United States Department of Health and Human Services, Defendants-Appellants.
- Cited By
- 11 cases
- Status
- Published