Sonia Sotomayor

“ Plaintiffs' primary claim, and the one with which the district court appears exclusively to have concerned itself, is based on the First Amendment. The thrust of this claim is that, as a result of the challenged restrictions, foreign NGOs are chilled from interacting and communicating with domestic abortion rights groups such as plaintiff CRLP, thus depriving plaintiffs of their rights to freedom of speech and association in carrying out the mission of the organization. ”

“ Having rejected plaintiffs' claims on the merits, this Court declined to address the question of whether plaintiffs had standing under Article III. Id. at 66.
Planned Parenthood not only controls this case conceptually; it presented the same issue. Planned Parenthood rejected the same First Amendment challenge to the same provision--the Standard Clause that was first instituted by President Reagan in the 1980s and was reinstated by President George W. Bush in 2001 [3] --and no intervening Supreme Court case law alters its precedential value. ”

“ Similarly, plaintiffs allege that the challenged restrictions impede their ability to disseminate publications and reports "because [foreign NGOs] that would otherwise distribute the publications in foreign countries are prohibited or chilled from doing so." Id. P 103. Plaintiffs argue that this harm is actionable under Supreme Court precedent holding that "the First Amendment protects [individuals'] right not only to advocate their cause but also to select what they believe to be the most effective means for so doing." ”

“ As the case law and the legal theories involved are quite different, this constitutional standing analysis does not inform the question on which we reserved judgment above regarding constitutional standing to bring the First Amendment claims. We find that plaintiffs do have constitutional standing to bring an equal protection claim. ”

“ Plaintiff The Center for Reproductive Law & Policy ("CRLP") is a nonprofit advocacy organization devoted to the promotion of reproductive rights. Individual plaintiffs Janet Benshoof, Anika Rahman, Katherine Hall Martinez, Julia Ernst, Laura Katzive, Melissa Upreti and Christina Zampas are CRLP staff attorneys engaged in the organization's global mission of reproductive law reform. Defendant George W. Bush is the President of the United States. ”

“ Planned Parenthood, 915 F.2d at 66. The Court reasoned that the domestic NGOs remained free to use their own funds to pursue abortion-related activities in foreign countries and that "the harm alleged in the complaint is the result of choices made by foreign NGOs to take AID's money rather than engage in non-AID funded cooperative efforts with plaintiffs-appellants." ”

“ The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 ("FAA") authorizes the President "to furnish assistance, on such terms and conditions as he may determine, for voluntary population planning." 22 U.S.C. § 2151b (b) . The President's authority to allocate FAA funding has been delegated to the Secretary of State and, in turn, to the Administrator of USAID. See Exec. Order No. ”