On June 21, the Supreme Court decision in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project delivered a blow to civil and free speech rights. The court upheld, by a 6-3 margin, a federal law that makes providing “material support” to groups on the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations illegal.
The Obama administration has unequivocally supported the 14-year-old law. Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, argued the case on behalf of the administration.
Many thought that federal encroachments on civil rights enacted while Bush was in office would be undone or at least challenged by the Obama administration. The current administration, however, continues to threaten free speech and human rights.
In 1998, two citizens and six humanitarian organizations challenged the constitutionality of the law on grounds that it violates the freedom of speech guaranteed in the First Amendment.
The Humanitarian Law Project, based in Los Angeles, was attempting to advocate for the Kurdish population in Turkey. The group was counseling the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the process of bringing complaints of human rights violations to the United Nations. The group was forced to suspend its activities when the PKK was labeled a terrorist group in 1997.
The PKK has been fighting for an independent Kurdish state since the late 1970s. Kurdistan spans parts of four countries: Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. More than half of the 30 million Kurds live in Turkey, which is a member of NATO and a key regional ally of U.S. imperialism. In return for their collaboration with Washington, Turkey receives large amounts of U.S. military aid and support in their long and brutal campaign against the Kurdish population.
The law is vaguely worded, and the definition of material support includes such benign activities as “expert advice or assistance” and “training.” The court ruled that these words can be construed so broadly as to prevent humanitarian, human rights and conflict resolution groups from engaging any organization labeled “terrorist.” The State Department is virtually free to label foreign terrorist organizations at will.
Any group that stands in the way of U.S. imperialist interests is subject to the label of terrorist. Hamas, the democratically elected government in Gaza, Palestine is included in the list.
Historically, the U.S. has attempted to label enemies of imperialism—those fighting against U.S. war and occupation—as terrorists while labeling fascist and counterrevolutionary groups as freedom fighters. The Supreme Court decision allows the U.S. ruling class to also target groups within the United States who are engaged in the struggle for human rights and against imperialism—at the expense of civil liberties.
The ruling came the day before it was revealed that the Pentagon has been paying the Taliban and other Afghan forces $2.16 billion in taxpayer dollars every year to ensure safe passage of supplies to U.S. bases in Afghanistan.
