Humanitarian Law Project v. United States Department of Justice

FOR PUBLICATION Argued and Submitted March 5, 2003 Pasadena, California In 1996, President Clinton signed into law the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (""AEDPA""). Two provisions of AEDPA, section 302 and section 303, codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1189 and 18 U.S.C. § 2339B, authorize the Secretary of State (""Secretary"") to designate an organization as a ""foreign terrorist organization,"" and make it a crime with a maximum penalty of life in prison for a person to provide ""material support or resources"" [hereinafter ""material support""] to a designated organization, respectively. This case addresses the question whether a criminal prosecution under 18 U.S.C. § 2339B requires the government to prove as an element of the offense that the defendant knew the organization had been designated by the Secretary as a foreign terrorist organization, or at least knew of the organization's unlawful activities leading to its designation.