Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/19-177_b97c.pdf
Page Number: 7

Cite as:  591 U. S. ____ (2020) 

5 

Opinion of the Court 

Urquidez,  494  U. S.,  at  275;  cf.  10  U. S. C.  §§2734(a),
2734a(a); 18 U. S. C. §2340A; 21 U. S. C. §904; 22 U. S. C.
§§2669,  2669–1;  42  U. S. C.  §2000dd;  but  see  28  U. S. C.
§2680(k)  (Federal  Tort  Claims  Act’s  exception  for  torts
“arising in a foreign country”).  Plaintiffs did not raise any 
such statutory claim in this case. 

Second, it is long settled as a matter of American corpo-
rate  law  that  separately  incorporated  organizations  are 
separate  legal  units  with  distinct  legal  rights  and  obliga-
tions.  See Dole Food Co. v. Patrickson, 538 U. S. 468, 474– 
475  (2003);  Cedric  Kushner  Promotions,  Ltd.  v.  King,  533 
U. S.  158,  163  (2001);  P.  Blumberg,  K.  Strasser,  N.  Geor-
gakopoulos,  &  E.  Gouvin,  Corporate  Groups  §§6.01,  6.02, 
6.05 (2020 Supp.).

Plaintiffs’  foreign  affiliates  were  incorporated  in  other 
countries and are legally separate from plaintiffs’ American
organizations.  Even though the foreign organizations have
affiliated with the American organizations, the foreign or-
ganizations remain legally distinct from the American or-
ganizations.  Plaintiffs do not ask this Court to pierce the 
corporate veil, nor do they invoke any other relevant excep-
tion  to  that  fundamental  corporate  law  principle.  Tr.  of 
Oral Arg. 54. 

Those two bedrock principles of American constitutional 
law and American corporate law together lead to a simple
conclusion:  As  foreign  organizations  operating  abroad, 
plaintiffs’ foreign affiliates possess no rights under the First 
Amendment. 

That conclusion corresponds to historical practice regard-
ing American foreign aid.  The United States supplies more 
foreign aid than any other nation in the world.  Cong. Re-
search Serv., Foreign Assistance: An Introduction to U. S. 
Programs  and  Policy  (2020)  (Summary).  Acting  with  the
President  in  the  legislative  process,  Congress  sometimes 
imposes conditions on foreign aid.  See 22 U. S. C. §§2271, 
2272, 2371, 7110(g)(2).  Congress may condition funding on