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posted by martyb on Wednesday September 07 2016, @04:13PM   Printer-friendly
from the back-and-forth dept.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday temporarily blocked a congressional subpoena that seeks information on how the classified advertising website Backpage.com screens ads for possible sex trafficking.

The order came hours after Backpage CEO Carl Ferrer asked the high court to intervene, saying the case threatens the First Amendment rights of online publishers.

A federal appeals court ruled 2-1 on Friday that the website must respond to the subpoena within 10 days. Roberts said Backpage does not have to comply with the appeals court order until further action from the Supreme Court.

[...] The Senate panel has tried for nearly a year to force Backpage to produce certain documents as part of its investigation into human trafficking over the Internet.

After the website refused to comply, the Senate voted 96-0 in March to hold the website in contempt.

[...] While Backpage has produced over 16,000 pages of documents responding to the subpoena, Ferrer said documents relating to the website's system for reviewing ads are part of the editorial process protected under the First Amendment.

"This case presents a question of exceptional nationwide importance involving the protection the First Amendment provides to online publishers of third-party content when they engage in core editorial functions," Ferrer said in a brief filed to Roberts.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SUPREME_COURT_SEX_TRAFFICKING


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  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday September 07 2016, @06:35PM

    by frojack (1554) on Wednesday September 07 2016, @06:35PM (#398815) Journal

    Well, Nevada is a pretty bad example,

    You are free to offer a different example where legal prostitution eliminates or substantially reduces human trafficking and pimp-induced-slavery.
    I suppose its possible that might exist somewhere, but even if women ran the world, girls would be trafficked against their will.

    As for your remarks about Vegas, I assume you do know prostitution is illegal there, - even if still available).

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  • (Score: 1) by Francis on Wednesday September 07 2016, @07:58PM

    by Francis (5544) on Wednesday September 07 2016, @07:58PM (#398843)

    Sweden has probably the best model. Selling sex is legal, but buying, pimping and trafficking are illegal.

    It cuts down on the typical problems associated with prostitution. Legalization schemes tend to break because it's surprisingly hard to tell the difference between forced and voluntary prostitution in brothels.

    • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 07 2016, @08:02PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 07 2016, @08:02PM (#398845)

      Legalization schemes tend to break because it's surprisingly hard to tell the difference between forced and voluntary prostitution in brothels.

      I feel the same way about encryption. It's hard to tell the good guys from the bad. To make law enforcement's job easier, we may need to place some restrictions on what encryption the general public is allowed to use.

      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday September 07 2016, @08:21PM

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 07 2016, @08:21PM (#398855) Journal

        While we're at it, we should relax the constitution to make policing, investigating and prosecuting easier.

        Police work is easy in a police state.

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      • (Score: 0, Troll) by Francis on Wednesday September 07 2016, @11:43PM

        by Francis (5544) on Wednesday September 07 2016, @11:43PM (#398920)

        Nice straw man you've got there. There's plenty of legitimate reasons for people to use cryptography and none for allowing people to pay for sex. And absolutely no reason to allow pimping or otherwise profiting off other people's prostitution.

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Thursday September 08 2016, @01:18AM

          by bob_super (1357) on Thursday September 08 2016, @01:18AM (#398951)

          > There's plenty of legitimate reasons (...) and none for allowing people to pay for sex.

          That would be quite incorrect.
          People pay for sex all the time, except that it's typically not a direct payment, but in the various forms of flowers, clothes, food, a roof overhead, a car...
          People also pay for all kind of legal disgusting activities involving body parts and/or fluids, whether it's for health or for fun. It would be interesting to know where you'd draw the line.
          The clear presence of a constant an unwavering demand is quite at odds with your opinion that people shouldn't be allowed to have safe activities between consenting parties, but only if there is cash on the table... who appointed you dictator?

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 08 2016, @06:20AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 08 2016, @06:20AM (#399057)

            Francis consistently opposes the right to control your own body if there's even the slightest chance of indirect harm or mishap. This same logic is not applied elsewhere, of course. It's no surprise he would resort to the ridiculous 'You don't need to do X!' argument.

        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday September 08 2016, @02:51AM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday September 08 2016, @02:51AM (#398987) Journal

          There's plenty of legitimate reasons for people to use cryptography and none for allowing people to pay for sex.

          Except, of course, that they want sex enough to pay for it and paying for sex is a victimless crime. That's reason enough.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 08 2016, @06:17AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 08 2016, @06:17AM (#399054)

          Even if you disagree with the analogy, there is no straw man there. Fallacy fail.

        • (Score: 2) by CirclesInSand on Thursday September 08 2016, @06:46AM

          by CirclesInSand (2899) on Thursday September 08 2016, @06:46AM (#399068)

          And absolutely no reason to allow ... profiting off other people's prostitution.

          Really? You are deciding on behalf of everyone else that prostitutes don't need bodyguards, or accountants, or agents? Do you have any advice on which direction we should all face when we pray?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 07 2016, @08:54PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 07 2016, @08:54PM (#398864)

      Personally I'm baffled by this. Are voluntary prostitutes not allowed to leave? How does that work? Do they just sign away years of their life or something?

      • (Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 07 2016, @09:39PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 07 2016, @09:39PM (#398879)

        It's one of those feminist laws, essentially anything the woman does is sanctified and righteous and anything the man does is evil.

    • (Score: 2) by JNCF on Wednesday September 07 2016, @09:54PM

      by JNCF (4317) on Wednesday September 07 2016, @09:54PM (#398890) Journal

      Sweden has probably the best model. Selling sex is legal, but buying, pimping and trafficking are illegal.

      That seems like an odd double standard. Setting aside the pimping and trafficking, this is like making drugs legal to sell but not legal to buy. If the voluntary transaction is heinous enough that society decides the government needs to swoop in and save the day, why should only one party be held responsible?

      Of course in the real world we punish drug dealers much harsher than users -- also a double standard, but in the opposite direction.

      • (Score: 1, Disagree) by Francis on Wednesday September 07 2016, @11:41PM

        by Francis (5544) on Wednesday September 07 2016, @11:41PM (#398917)

        the point of it it's that the harm is to the prostitutes and so they get the protection when they need it. There's no compelling reason for prostitution to be legal, but human trafficking and sex tourism are significant problems.

        • (Score: 2) by JNCF on Thursday September 08 2016, @03:36AM

          by JNCF (4317) on Thursday September 08 2016, @03:36AM (#399003) Journal

          Ah, so sellers can seek protection from the law but buyers can't. Interesting economy.

          There's no compelling reason for prostitution to be legal,

          And an interesting standard for legality. Is there any compelling reason for cotton candy to be legal? Is this even the question we generally ask?