Anti-terrorism case not an easy one

02/23/10: SCOTUSblog reports that with a federal government lawyer pushing for a sweeping interpretation of the government’s most-used anti-terrorism law, the Supreme Court on Tuesday at times seemed tempted to conclude that, perhaps, the law may go too far.  Although some of the Justices made it clear they were sympathetic to Congress’ attempts to stop aid to international terrorist groups, a somewhat surprising skepticism set in as the 62-minute argument in the Humanitarian Law Project cases unfolded. The Court was reviewing the cases of Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project (08-1498) and Humanitarian Law Project v. Holder (09-89) as tests of a law dating back to 1996 providing up to 15 years in prison if convicted of providing “material support” to any group designated by the US government as terrorist.