United States Ninth Circuit

In a suit challenging the constitutionality of portions of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) and its 2004 amendment, a partial grant of summary judgment is affirmed where: 1) AEDPA section 2339B(a) does not violate plaintiffs' Fifth Amendment due process rights with regards to its mens rea requirement; 2) that section, which criminalizes the act of knowingly providing "material support or resources" to a designated foreign terrorist organization, is void for vagueness with regards to bans on providing "training," "service," and "expert advice or assistance" in the form of "other specialized knowledge"; 3) an overbreadth challenge failed; and 4) a claim that one provision constituted an unconstitutional licensing scheme also failed.

Appellate Information

• Argued 05/01/2007
• Decided 12/10/2007
• Published 12/10/2007

Judges

• Before HARRY PREGERSON, SIDNEY R. THOMAS, and JOHNNIE B. RAWLINSON, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Peter D. Keisler, Assistant Attorney General;  Debra Wong Yang, United States Attorney;  Gregory G. Katsas, Deputy Assistant Attorney General;  and Douglas N. Letter, Joshua Waldman, Appellate Staff, Civil Division, for the defendants-appellants/appellees., David Cole, Georgetown University Law Center;  Shayna Kadidal, Center for Constitutional Rights;  Carol A. Sobel, Law Office of Carol A. Sobel;  Paul L. Hoffman, Schonbrun, De Simone, Seplow Harris & Hoffman, LLP;  Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, Plaintiff World Tamil Coordinating Comm., for the plaintiffs-appellees/appellants.