LAWSUIT TARGETS TREASURY RULES

Abstract

THE SIMMERING DISPUTE over restrictions on publishing has boiled over again, with four groups suing the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in federal court in New York City on Sept. 27. The plaintiffs are the Association of American Publishers' Professional & Scholarly Publishing (AAP/PSP) Division, the Association of American University Presses, PEN American Center, and Arcade Publishing. The American Chemical Society, through its membership in AAP, is participating in the suit. The society is providing $25,000 in financial backing for the effort. In a joint statement, the plaintiffs say they are asking the court to strike down OFAC regulations that require publishers and authors to seek a license from the to perform the routine activities necessary to publish foreign literature from embargoed countries such as Iran, Cuba, and the Sudan in the U.S. It violates the First Amendment, and government should not be requiring a ...