Cite as: 538 U. S. 600 (2003)
Opinion of the Court
Justice Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case concerns the amenability of for-profit fundraising corporations to suit by the Attorney General of Illinois for fraudulent charitable solicitations. The controversy arises from the fundraisers' contracts with a charitable nonprofit corporation organized to advance the welfare of Vietnam veterans; under the contracts, the fundraisers were to retain 85 percent of the proceeds of their fundraising endeavors. The State Attorney General's complaint alleges that the fund-raisers defrauded members of the public by falsely representing that "a significant amount of each dollar donated would be paid over to [the veterans organization] for its [charitable] purposes while in fact the [fundraisers] knew that . . . 15 cents or less of each dollar would be available" for those purposes. App. 9, ¶ 34. Complementing that allegation, the complaint states that the fundraisers falsely represented that "the funds donated would go to further . . . charitable purposes," id., at 8, ¶ 29, when in fact "the amount . . . paid over to charity was merely incidental to the fund
Jerry W. Kilgore of Virginia, Christine O. Gregoire of Washington, Darrell V. McGraw, Jr., of West Virginia, and Hoke MacMillan of Wyoming; and for the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc., et al. by Steven J. Cole and Richard Woods.
Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for the American Teleservices Association by Robert Corn-Revere; for the Association of Fundraising Professionals et al. by Geoffrey W. Peters and Walter J. Sczudlo; for Disabled American Veterans by Christopher J. Clay and John L. Moore, Jr.; for the Free Speech Defense and Education Fund, Inc., et al. by William J. Olson, John S. Miles, Herbert W. Titus, Mark Weinberg, and Mark Fitzgibbons; for Independent Sector et al. by Robert A. Bois-ture, Albert G. Lauber, and Lloyd H. Mayer; and for Public Citizen, Inc., et al. by Bonnie I. Robin-Vergeer and Alan B. Morrison.
Briefs of amici curiae were filed for AARP by Deborah M. Zuckerman, Stacy J. Canan, and Michael R. Schuster; for Hudson Bay Co. of Illinois, Inc., by Thomas H. Goodman and Anthony J. Gleekel; and for Thirty-two Commercial Fundraisers et al. by Charles H. Nave.
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