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Add an EventWebsite banking blockade by sheriff foiled
An attempt to strangle backpage dot com might have succeeded except for their appeal to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart took offense at the adult section of Backpage, suspecting some ads were for illegal services. He had already tried to sue Craigslist for the same reason, and lost, so he tried the approach that Senator Joe Lieberman used against Wikileaks in 2010: the financial blockade.
Dart sent letters to the credit card companies urging them not to do business with backpage dot com, and when backpage sought an injunction to stop him, Dart claimed he was exercising his right to free speech, and acting as himself, not as sheriff. Dart's argument did prevail in district court, but the federal bench noticed that he'd used his official letterhead, and this turned the case around:
"Central to Backpage’s case is a letter of June 29 of this year that Sheriff Dart sent both to MasterCard’s CEO and Board of Directors and to the corresponding personnel of Visa. The letter is on stationery captioned “Office of the Sheriff” and begins: “As the Sheriff of Cook County, a father and a caring citizen, I write to request that your institution immediately cease and desist from allowing your credit cards to be used to place ads on websites like Backpage.com.” Notice that he is sheriff first, father and citizen second; notice his use of the legal term “cease and desist”; notice that he calls MasterCard “your institution,” implying that the same letter is going to other “institutions”—namely other credit card companies—in other words that he is organizing a boycott. And notice that he doesn’t demand that “your institution” refuse to allow “your credit cards” to be used to pay just for ads on Backpage’s website that promote illegal products or services—he demands that “your institution” cease and desist from placing any ads “on websites like Backpage.com” (and a fortiori on Backpage’s own website) even though “adult” ads are only one of eleven types of classified ad published on the website. Visa and MasterCard got the message and cut all their ties to Backpage."
The appeals court found that Dart was not exercising his personal right to free speech, but instead using the coercive force of the State to suppress the free speech of others. The district court was reversed, and the following injunction ordered:
Sheriff Dart, his office, and all employees, agents, or others who are acting or have acted for or on behalf of him, shall take no actions, formal or informal, to coerce or threaten credit card companies, processors, financial institutions, or other third parties with sanctions intended to ban credit card or other financial services from being provided to Backpage.com.
The entire decision is worth reading, and Glen Greenwald offers a more exhaustive analysis at The Intercept.
David Roknich,INDYRADIO The future of radio belongs to us. New playlists are linked at http://ch0.us
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