Court Rules Government's Freeze Of Charity's Assets Unconstitutional

[The Straight Story]

Court Rules Government's Freeze Of Charity's Assets Unconstitutional (8/19/2009)

Treasury Department Violated Fourth And Fifth Amendment Rights Of ACLU Client KindHearts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: [phone]; [e-mail]

TOLEDO, OH – A federal court ruled for the first time late Tuesday that the government cannot freeze an organization's assets under a terror financing law without obtaining a warrant based upon probable cause. The court also found that the government must give the organization notice of the basis for freezing its assets and a meaningful opportunity to defend itself. The ruling came in a lawsuit filed in November 2008 by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Ohio and several civil rights attorneys on behalf of KindHearts for Charitable Humanitarian Development, Inc., an Ohio-based charity. The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) froze KindHearts' assets three-and-a-half years ago without a warrant, notice or a hearing, based simply on the assertion that OFAC was investigating whether the charity should be designated as a "specially designated global terrorist (SDGT)."

"This historic ruling rejects the government's argument that the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures does not apply when a case raises national security and foreign policy concerns," said Hina Shamsi, an ACLU cooperating attorney who argued the case. "The ruling provides a much-needed judicial check on executive power. Until now, the administration has been able to unilaterally and indefinitely freeze the assets of a U.S. corporation without probable cause and a warrant."

KindHearts has never been found to have engaged in any wrongdoing and has never been designated an SDGT, yet it has been effectively shut down since OFAC first froze its assets on February 19, 2006. As a result of the freeze pending investigation, it is a crime for anyone to do any business with KindHearts and the charity has no access to its own property.

http://www.aclu.org/safefree/discrim/40774prs20090819.html