Nonprofit Coalition Files Lawsuit Over Terror Lists

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A coalition of charities and advocacy organizations filed a lawsuit yesterday to overturn a new federal rule requiring them to certify that their employees are not on watch lists of persons with possible links to terrorism.


Earlier this year, the government demanded such a certification from all groups participating in a program that allows federal employees to make charitable donations through their paychecks, the Combined Federal Campaign.


The lawsuit alleges that the agency that oversees the fund-raising drive, the Office of Personnel Management, had no legal authority to impose the new rule and failed to open the policy change to public comment. The coalition, which is led by the American Civil Liberties Union, also claims that the requirement is vague and unconstitutional.


“We feel it’s really important for people to be aware of this and for the CFC to rescind the decision,” said a spokeswoman for the National Council of Nonprofit Agencies, Erica Greeley.


Ms. Greeley said many of the more than 20,000 small charitable groups affiliated with her organization are confused and overwhelmed by the new rules.


“It’s not actually clear what the CFC is asking nonprofits to do,” she said. “It’s a Herculean task.”


A spokesman for the Office of Personnel Management referred questions about the new rule to the Justice Department. An official there said the agency could not comment until it received a copy of the suit.


The Combined Federal Campaign’s Web site contains a page entitled, “U.S. Government Terrorism-Related Watch Lists.” That page contains links to a Treasury Department list of persons and organizations subject to financial sanctions; a “Terrorist Exclusion List” released by the State Department, which contains only names of organizations, and a copy of a 2001 executive order signed by President Bush blocking the assets of certain Islamic organizations and individuals.


Similar name-checking requirements apply to banks and financial institutions. Many of them have signed up with costly computer services that attempt to match names of accountholders to the list.


Ms. Greeley said the charities also have a philosophical objection to enforcing the new rule. “The existence of these watch lists and the fact there’s no clear way to get on or off them is fundamentally undemocratic,” she said.


The government is also requiring charities to pledge that they are not employing or providing funds to any entity on watch lists released by the United Nations and European Union. The groups said as many as 14 different lists might be covered by the government’s order, and many of them contain scant detail. “They’re riddled with errors,” Ms. Greeley said. “One of the names on the list is Ahmed the Tall. What are you supposed to do with that? Do you employ someone named Ahmed? Are you supposed to figure out if they’re tall?”


In the court filing, the ACLU noted that its executive director, Anthony Romero, sometimes goes by the name Antonio. An Antonio Romero appears on one of the watch lists, though with a different birth date than that of the ACLU official. “It is not clear if that fact alone is sufficient for the ACLU to sign the required certification, or whether the ACLU must take some further, unspecified steps before it may do so,” the complaint states.


The ACLU also expressed concern that it could violate the new requirement by giving legal counsel to a group or entity on the list or by paying for a client’s travel expenses or court-related costs.


Ms. Greely said her association “is fully in favor of the fight against terrorism,” but believes that the government should not be trying to enlist the charities in the effort in this manner. “This puts nonprofits in the position of policing,” she said.


The Combined Federal Campaign for 2003 raised nearly $250 million from about 1.3 million government employees. More than 10,000 organizations benefited from the donations.


In July, the ACLU withdrew from the federal fund-raising program, citing the watch-list requirement. The civil liberties group said it raised $500,000 a year through the federal campaign. Last month, the ACLU announced that it had also given up $1.1 million in grants from the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation because of a similar requirement that all grant recipients certify that no funds would be used to support terrorism, violence, or bigotry.


The groups challenging the new rule include Amnesty International, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, the NAACP, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Our Bodies Ourselves, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee.


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