Agency for Int’l Dev. v. Alliance for Open Society Int’l, Inc.

Whether §7631(f) of the United States Leadership against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Act of 2003 (“Leadership Act”), which requires that agencies that receive federal funding to administer foreign HIV and AIDS programs must have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex-trafficking, and endorse the government’s stance on prostitution, violates the First Amendment.

Respondents successfully argued that §7631(f) of the United States Leadership against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Act of 2003 (“Leadership Act”)—which mandated that “no funds made available to carry out this act . . . may be used to provide assistance to any group or organization that does not have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution”—violated their First Amendment rights as viewpoint discrimination and was thus an undue restraint on the receipt of government funds, and were granted a preliminary injunction against its enforcement.

The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed and the Supreme Court granted certiorari to resolve whether requiring that agencies that receive federal funding to administer foreign HIV and AIDS programs must have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex-trafficking and endorse the government’s stance on prostitution violates the First Amendment.