The US Court of Appeals has ruled it unconstitutional to require that international AIDS outreach organizations denounce prostitution in order to receive federal funds. Predictably, the government conflated sex work with sex trafficking in its demands that organizations sign an anti-prostitution pledge. (Hence its name; it’s not called an “anti-trafficking pledge.”)
The reasoning for the ruling was as follows:
Compelling speech as a condition of receiving a government benefit cannot be squared with the First Amendment.
Right on. Thanks, Second Circuit! (Except for you, Justice Straub, for encouraging that the Supreme Court take this on so the ruling can be overturned.)
More information about PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) and the anti prostitution pledge can be found here. And an early account of how the case unfolded can be found here.