Yes, Virginia, Supporting Terrorists IS a Crime
Paul Rosenzweig /
On June 21, in Humanitarian Law Project v. Holder, the Supreme Court reaffirmed the painfully obvious – that providing material support to terrorists is a crime and that Congress’ saying so is not a violation of the Constitution. That it took more than 10 years to reach this conclusion, and that three Justices dissented from it, says more about the ways in which lawyers construct arguments that only lawyers can believe in than it does about the reality of the world we live in, in which terrorist activities abound.
First, a bit of background: Since 1996, Congress has made it a crime to provide “material support or resources” to an organization the Secretary of State has designated as a “foreign terrorist organization.” The purpose of the law is to deny terrorist groups the ingredients necessary for planning and carrying out attacks.
One of the key ingredients in the law was a prohibition on virtually all types support, including both tangible support such as money, goods, and materials and also less concrete support, such as “personnel” and “training.” Recognizing that any form of support might benefit the organization, Congress made the ban near total. It was concerned, for example, that terrorist organizations with charitable or humanitarian arms were raising funds within the United States that could then be used to further their terrorist activities. Money is, after all, fungible. And so, the law outlawed any support to these groups, irrespective of whether that support was intended for humanitarian purposes.