Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the difficult case, USAID v.Alliance for Open Society. The case involves the federal program to combat HIV-AIDS overseas. Congress designed the program with a requirement that only organizations with a policy opposing prostitution are eligible to be grantees. In other programs, the government might require grantees not to oppose the government’s view in the specific program the government is funding, but here the requirement to be aligned with the federal government’s view is a positive obligation and extends to the whole organization. The broad policy at stake in this case is much too broad, according to free speech advocates and also defenders of faith-based services, who are worried that a secular-minded government might use such a broad gag-power to exclude organizations that do not follow the current societal consensus on moral issues.

It is a difficult case for a multitude of reasons. However, a decision that gives the federal government broad power to exclude from its grant programs organizations that do not toe the current governmental ideology would be a tragic outcome.

Further reading: Stanley Carlson-Thies, “Don’t Make George Soros Oppose Prostitution,”Christianity Today April 22, 2013.