Non-Profit Rights
Government increasingly relies on private organizations to provide social services and carry out other government functions. For the non-profit sector, this brings much-needed funding but also increases government’s power to censor civil society. Too often, politicians and bureaucrats use the power of the purse to silence critics.
To assist nonprofits whose First Amendment rights are threatened, the Brennan Center works with civil legal aid programs, their clients, and their allies to fight funding restrictions that interfere with advocacy by civil legal aid lawyers on behalf of their clients. We also challenged a requirement that organizations pledge their opposition to prostitution as a condition for receiving federal funds to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS overseas, winning a victory in the Second Circuit.
The Brennan Center is challenging funding restrictions put on organizations that receive Global AIDS Act funding.
Brennan Center v. U.S. DOJ, HHS, USAID
The Brennan Center has filed a FOIA lawsuit seeking the 2004 U.S. Office of Legal Counsel opinion stating that the anti-prostitution pledge requirement is unconstitutional.
The Brennan Center is challenging funding restrictions put on organizations that receive Global AIDS Act funding.
Let’s Talk About Sex (Workers)
Zoe Hudson writes this guest post on the Second Circuit's decision that global AIDS funding restrictions violate the First Amendment.
Obama Administration Won’t Release Bush-Era OLC Opinion
The Obama Administration has pledged to restore transparency in government. But the Brennan Center had to sue for the release of a Bush-era opinion by the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) . . .
FOIA Lawsuit Seeks Bush-Era DOJ Opinion
The Brennan Center for Justice filed a federal lawsuit to compel release of a long-suppressed Bush-era legal opinion; the opinion in question purportedly acknowledges that a federal law—which requires organizations receiving federal grants for HIV/AIDS work to pledge opposition to prostitution—may be unconstitutional.
Court Rules Government Cannot Enforce Speech Restriction on Humanitarian Groups
In AOSI v. USAID, a federal judge enjoined the government from enforcing a restriction against health and humanitarian groups participating in the federal government’s international HIV/AIDS program
LCCR Urges Congress to Rollback Draconian Legal Services Restrictions
In a letter outlining its legislative priorities for the 111th Congress, LCCR asks Members to remove restrictions on legal services for low-income communities.
The Constitutionality of Restrictions on the Federal Affordable Housing Fund
A memorandum exploring the constitutionality of proposed restrictions on the federal affordable housing fund
Obama Administration Refuses to Release Bush-Era OLC Opinion
The Obama Administration has pledged to restore transparency in government. But last week the Brennan Center had to sue for the release of a Bush-era opinion by the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) . . .
An Important Vote to Protect Charity Lobbying Rights
An article describing the legal services “poison pill” restriction and its relationship to more recent efforts to defund nonprofit advocacy work.