Bi-weekly News & Opinion - May 15, 2026

C&SN Comments on U.S. Treasury’s Plans for Regulating Stablecoins

C&SN submitted comment to the U.S. Department of the Treasury following a request for public input on how it plans to regulate stablecoins as part of the GENIUS Act. C&SN’s submission highlighted the potential stablecoins have for supporting nonprofits transferring funds abroad, and how regulations can avoid financial access challenges, like de-risking, that have long hampered humanitarian groups and other frontline nonprofits working in conflict contexts. Read more at C&SN. (May 14)

2026 United States Counterterrorism Strategy Escalates Crackdown on Civil Society

The White House released its 2026 United States Counterterrorism Strategy, which expands upon measures and policies targeting progressive nonprofit organizations in the name of countering terrorism, and serves as the latest development in a campaign to disparage and impede the work of civil society. While it does not enact procedural or investigative power, the strategy further emphasizes the aim of the Executive Branch to quell its political opponents by classifying them as terror groups and working across government agencies to do so. Read the full analysis at C&SN. (May 13)

Trump Administration Launches Lawfare Attack on Southern Poverty Law Center

The U.S. Department of Justice charged – with few facts in support – that the 55-year-old civil rights group committed financial crime by paying confidential informants to infiltrate and collect intelligence on extremist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan. The lawsuit is a reminder that the Trump Administration will use whatever means it can to attack its political opponents. Read more at C&SN. (May 6)

FinCEN Proposes Rule to Pay Whistleblowers

The U.S. Department of the Treasury is proposing a rule which would provide financial incentives to individuals who whistleblow on potential violations of U.S. anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) laws, and sanctions. 

• The proposal for this program is now open to public comment until the Jun. 1, 2026 deadline. 
• AML/CFT and sanctions regulations are already prone to being weaponized by the current administration and other private groups to attack civil society and activists that they disagree with—C&SN fears that this whistleblower program could accentuate these politically motivated attacks.
• Read the full Notice of Proposed Rulemaking at FinCEN.gov and the press release announcing the program here.

Consider registering as a C&SN Member (no financial commitment required) to receive our weekly Opportunity Spotlight Newsletter. There we share exclusive opportunities for civil society input, webinars, events, and working groups on key issue areas such as sanctions, material support, financial access, lawfare, civil society rights and resiliency, human rights in counter-terrorism and more. 

State-Level Terrorism Designation Laws and U.S. Nonprofits

Florida and Indiana have enacted laws allowing state officials to designate domestic organizations as "terrorist entities" — with felony penalties for anyone providing vaguely defined "material support." The International Center for Not-for-Profit Law has created a resource outlining the alarming rise of state-level terrorism laws and how they can impact nonprofits. (May 2026)

Know Your Rights 

The European Legal Support Center develops and collects essential resources to help Palestine advocates navigate legal challenges and protect their rights. View their catalogue here. 

Explore a full list of resources designed to support the nonprofit sector as they prepare and respond to lawsuits, disinformation, and other forms of attack on civil society at C&SN’s Civil Society Rights & Resiliency hub.

U.S. Senators Introduce Bill to Designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Terrorist Organization

U.S. Senators Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) introduced the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act, which claims to outline a “modernized strategy for designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group.” Read the press release. (Apr. 27)

Civil Society Is as Much Online as It Is Off. How One Nonprofit Is Tracking Digital Civil Society Repression.

Authoritarian states are increasingly going online to silence civic activism, Gastón Wright explores how Radar Cívico records crackdowns on this new front. Read the op-ed at Alliance magazine. (Apr. 28) 

Bank Secrecy Act—FinCEN Consolidates and Updates Customer Due Diligence FAQs

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) reissued and updated its consolidated FAQs addressing the Customer Due Diligence requirements for financial institutions. Read the key takeaways at VitalLaw. (May 7)

Will Congress Throw Out a Tool to Fight Money Laundering & Corruption? 

U.S. Congress may soon vote on whether to repeal the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), the 2021 anti-money-laundering law that requires American companies to disclose to federal investigators who actually owns and controls them. Dani Schulkin, Jodi Vittori, and Matthew Stephenson explore what this means in the greater context of the United States’ overhaul on financial regulations. Read the analysis in Just Security. (May. 7)

Laurel Loomis Rimon Analyzes FinCEN's Proposed New Rules for Bank Secrecy Act and Countering Financing of Terrorism Requirements

The Department of the Treasury’s proposed overhaul of financial regulations embedded in the Bank Secrecy Act is billed as reducing burden, setting a higher bar for enforcement actions, and providing a modernized, risk-based framework. Attorneys at Jenner & Block LLP write that though this framing is not wrong, it is “incomplete” in regards to how it impacts fintech companies, crypto platforms, and the banks that partner with them. (May 4)

Tunisia: Dozens of NGOs at Risk of Dissolution 

Tunisian authorities have intensified their crackdown on nonprofits  through court-ordered suspensions and threats of dissolution, judicial and administrative harassment on the pretext of combating “suspicious” foreign funding and protecting “national interests,” Amnesty International reports. (May 11)



Chairman Smith Reasserts Demands for CCP-Linked Nonprofits to Comply with Committee Oversight

The Republican-led House Ways and Means Committee has continued its campaign to investigate foreign influence in the nonprofit sector, issuing letters to legal counsels representing nonprofits BreakThrough News, Tricontinental, and The People’s Forum—who they claim are linked to the Chinese Communist Party. Read the press release. (May 5)

Cuba Mulls US Offer of $100 Million in Aid But Wary of Trump's Motives, Blockade

"We hope it will be free of political ​maneuvering and attempts to exploit the hardships and suffering of a people under ​siege," Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez wrote on social media. Dave Sherwood reports for Reuters. (May 14) 

Gaza Water Shortage Persists More than 6 Months After Ceasefire

Nearly 90% of the enclave’s water infrastructure was destroyed, according to the United Nations, including desalination plants and sewage treatment facilities. Wafaa Shurafa, Toqa Ezzidin, and Sam Metz report for Associated Press. (Apr. 30)

Calls for Humanitarian Corridor through Strait of Hormuz as Iran War Hits Vital Aid

Nonprofits working around the world report that soaring oil prices and the blockade are preventing food, fuel and medicine being delivered to millions of people in desperate need. Rebecca Root reports for The Guardian. (Apr. 29)

Alabama Opens Its Own Investigation Into the Southern Poverty Law Center

Following charges brought by the Department of Justice, Alabama attorney general’s office said that it was separately investigating the law center to determine whether “the S.P.L.C.’s activity within the state also ran afoul of the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act or state laws related to charitable organizations.” Christina Morales reports for The New York Times. (May 11)

The Politically Motivated Indictment of Southern Poverty Law Center

“Prosecuting a group that the far right opposes by accusing the group of supporting the far right makes this one of the most cynical criminal cases ever brought by the Department of Justice,” writes Christopher Hardee in Lawfare. (May 8)

Lawsuit Seeks Records on IRS Implementation of Trump Executive Orders Purportedly Targeting “Antifa”

Protect Democracy filed suit against the IRS and the Department of the Treasury seeking records that would reveal whether and how the agency is targeting “Antifa” in ways that exploit domestic terrorism authorities to potentially target everyday Americans and civil society organizations opposed to Trump’s political agenda. Read more at American Oversight. (Apr. 29)

The Next Frontier: Overcoming Crime and Corruption in Post-Sanctions States 

“Post-sanctions economic recovery requires a roadmap, new partners, and new practices that can displace, prosecute, and deter internal corruption and external illicit networks that flourished under sanctions.” Susan Carter, George A. Lopez and Alistair Millar write in Just Security. (May 15)

New IEEPA Executive Order Expands Cuba Sanctions Risks

Holland & Knight analyze the Trump Administration’s expansion of sanctions targeting key sectors of Cuba’s economy, including permissions for activities outlined in Cuba-related General License 1. (May 13)

UN Experts Warn US Fuel Blockade in Cuba Puts Human Rights at Risk

"While the [sanctions] references human rights concerns within ​Cuba, it fails ​to consider ⁠how the measure itself — a unilateral coercive measure — directly harms the enjoyment of human ​rights of the Cuban people,” stated a group of independent experts appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council. Reuters reports. (May 7)

Sanctions Watch April 2026

Read the Center for Economic and Policy Research’s latest edition of Sanctions Watch, which provides updates and analysis on U.S. sanctions regimes across key contexts, such as Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, and more. (Apr. 30)

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