BORDERS

SCOTUS Affirms Trump Rule That USAID Recipients Must Oppose Prostitution, Sex Trafficking for HIV/AIDS Funding

Lets stand a requirement that foreign recipients of U.S. funding for HIV/AIDS programs have a “policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking.”

Along ideological lines, the Supreme Court today let stand a requirement that foreign recipients of U.S. funding for HIV/AIDS programs have a “policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking.” That policy excludes numerous overseas organizations who serve sex workers, who are often at severe risk of HIV transmission. The Alliance for Open Society International, which has several organizational affiliates who do so, had argued the policy violated its First Amendment rights. Writing for the court’s five conservatives, Justice Brett Kavanaugh rejected that claim, saying that “foreign citizens outside U.S. territory do not possess rights under the U.S. Constitution.” In dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer replied that the majority “asks the wrong question and gives the wrong answer,” because the constitutional rights at issue belong to U.S. organizations, not their foreign affiliates. The case is Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society International Inc.