The Eleventh Circuit’s opinion comes more than nine months after U.S. District Judge Thomas Thrash rejected American Alliance’s bid for an injunction to block the grant program. The group, with backing from American Enterprise Institute fellow Edward Blum, sued in 2022 alleging the program was unlawfully discriminatory.
But last September, Judge Thrash ruled that the grants constituted monetary donations, falling outside the bounds of civil rights protection.
“The First Amendment protects the [Fearless Fund] defendants’ right to decide what message they want to promote, and that’s what the First Amendment is all about,” Judge Thrash said. “The plaintiff disagrees with that message. They want the defendants to communicate a different message. Well, that’s not the way it works.”
On appeal, American Alliance argued that Fearless’ claim of First Amendment protection was concealing the discriminatory intent behind the program.
“They argue they label their contest as a donation, and the discrimination itself is expressive,” said Gilbert Dickey, representing American Alliance, during oral argument in January. “But this turns not on how they label it but how a reasonable person would view it.”
