[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit [official website] on Tuesday upheld [opinion, PDF] a freeze on the assets of the Islamic-American Relief Agency [archived website] of Columbia, Missouri on the grounds that it was an affiliate of the Islamic African Relief Agency [US Treasury statement], a Sudanese group accused of funneling money to al-Qaida and other terrorist groups. The IARA had argued that it and its Sudanese counterpart operate with separate leaders and bank accounts. The Missouri-based charity did not, however, contest the alleged terror connections of its Sudanese partners.

The charity argued the freeze denied its constitutional rights, but the appellate court held that "[w]here an organization is found to have supported terrorism, government actions to suspend that support are not unconstitutional." While it admitted unclassified evidence presented at trial was "not overwhelming," the court said it would be "extremely deferential" to the government in cases pertaining to national security. AP has more.