This week, a panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments in Portland on the case of an Oregon Islamic charity.

I0n 2004, the government said Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation had economic ties to terrorists. The group's lawyers have spent years trying to clear its name.

Pete Seda's Ashland charity had little recourse when the Treasury Department designated it a sponsor of terrorism. 

The charity couldn't request to see the evidence.  It couldn't appeal without going to court.  All its assets were frozen, and Al-Haramain was out of business overnight.

The plaintiffs say the designation violated the fourth and fifth amendments. They'll ask the court this week to overturn the judgment of a federal judge in Oregon.

Judges will permit attorneys for each side to speak for thirty minutes. That's unusual. Appeals cases typically merit ten-, fifteen-, or, at most, twenty-minute oral arguments.

Unlike the detailed stories told in trial courts, these hearings concern questions of procedure, precedent, or constitutional issues.

Separate cases have explored whether charity founder Seda made an illegal wire transfer, and whether the government illegally spied on Al-Haramain.

March 07, 2011, OPB