June 13, 2006

Press Release

Emergency Coalition to Defend Educational Travel (ECDET)
Files Suit Against the Treasury Department Over Restrictions on Educational Travel to Cuba

On June 13, the Emergency Coalition to Defend Educational Travel (ECDET), an association of over 450 professors and other educators; Dr. Wayne S. Smith of Johns Hopkins University; Dr. John Cotman of Howard University; and Jessica Kamen and Adnan Ahmad, both undergraduate students at Johns Hopkins University; filed suit against the U.S. Treasury Department over restrictions on educational travel issued on June 16 of 2004, restrictions which clearly violate academic freedom as defined by the Supreme Court.

The First Amendment to the Constitution protects academic freedom, which the courts have defined as the right of educators to decide, without any interference from the federal government, which courses will be taught, how they will be taught, who will teach them, and who can take them.

The restrictions challenged in the lawsuit today also violate the Administrative Procedure Act because Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) exceeded its statutory authority under the Trading with the Enemy Act by imposing restrictions which are not rationally related to that statute’s purely economic purpose of denying trade and hard currency to Cuba. The new restrictions are therefore arbitrary, capricious and not in accordance with law.

Plaintiffs are demanding that the new restrictions be removed forthwith and that U.S. educational programs in Cuba resume on the same basis that existed prior to the restrictions challenged in the lawsuit.

Robert Muse, the lawyer representing ECDET, said it was regrettable that legal action has to be taken. The 2004 restrictions clearly violate well-established academic freedoms. However, earlier requests that they be modified to meet constitutional standards, or rescinded altogether, were ignored by the federal government. Hence, the aggrieved parties have no choice but to take the matter to court. Mr. Muse can be reached at MuseRL@Yahoo.com.

ECDET may be contacted at ECDET@ECDET.ORG. A copy of the complaint filed today in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia may be viewed at the ECDET website, at ECDET.org.

Emergency Coalition to Defend Educational Travel (ECDET)
Email: ecdet@ecdet.org