The U.S. Supreme Court has cast a skeptical eye on a First Amendment challenge against a federal ban on encouraging illegal immigration, with justices saying the law is too rarely invoked to actually chill free speech.
The law in question, known as Section 1324 of the U.S. Code, makes it a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison to “encourage or induce” foreign nationals to illegally enter or remain in the United States for private financial gain.
During Monday’s oral argument (pdf), several Supreme Court justices appeared to agree that the rather broad terms of “encourage” and “induce” could be interpreted in a way to infringe one’s freedom of speech. They did note, however, that the government hardly used the law to prosecute Americans merely for what they say….