On Wednesday, August 5th, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit upheld the convictions of members of the African People's Socialist Party for acting as unregistered foreign agents of Russia. The ruling was authored by Chief Judge William Pryor and joined by Judges Jill Pryor and Andrew Brasher.

The court found that Section 951 of the U.S. Code, which mandates that individuals acting on behalf of foreign governments disclose their status to the Attorney General, is a content-neutral law. It is therefore subject to intermediate scrutiny, which the court applied to sustain the statute. The judges emphasized that the law advances important governmental interests unrelated to suppressing free speech and does not burden substantially more speech than necessary.

The court stated, "[T]he Government has an interest in knowing the identity of those acting on behalf of a foreign government within the United States, whether the action is legal or not." The rationale is "decidedly content agnostic" because it "neither references the content of speech [of agents] nor reflects disagreement with the message … [they] convey[]." After notifying the Attorney General, agents remain free to engage in any speech or expressive conduct on any topic.

The defendants had argued for strict scrutiny based on the 2015 Supreme Court decision in Reed v. Town of Gilbert, which treats content-neutral laws as content-based when used to target speech. However, the Eleventh Circuit clarified that Reed only applies when regulations cannot be justified without reference to the content of the regulated speech or were adopted due to disagreement with the message. Under this standard, Section 951 remains content neutral.

Evidence presented included statements that before a trip by Party leader Omali Yeshitela, a Movement officer was told by Hess that Yeshitela sought to meet with an official Russian government representative and hold an event addressing the struggle of African people. Additionally, Ionov, a Russian national, donated $500 to the Party as part of a "Reparations Challenge" and requested a United Nations petition on genocide against African people in the U.S., which the Party was to support as co-writers.

Ionov also targeted Meta, Facebook's parent company, accusing it of allowing calls for violence against Russians and encouraged protests outside Meta buildings in March 2022. Yeshitela acknowledged during Party meetings that the Party had developed a relationship with Russian forces as "allies," and the defendants' agreement aimed to violate Section 951.

This ruling reinforces the government's ability to require transparency from individuals acting on behalf of foreign powers without infringing on free speech rights.

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