USA: Broad powers to designate terrorist groups or individuals ruled unconstitutional

On 28 November, a district court ruled that parts of the Executive Order authorizing the freezing of assets of suspected terrorists and terrorist organizations, were vague and therefore unconstitutional. The Order, issued by the President in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, gave the President broad authority to designate organizations and individuals as terrorist without any criteria and authorized the Secretary of Treasury to designate those “otherwise associated” with a designated terrorist group. The case was brought on behalf of the Humanitarian Law Project, an NGO seeking to provide human rights advocacy training to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey and several other organizations seeking to support humanitarian activities of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka.