Why the Government's Legal Assault on Backpage.com Backfired (New Reason Podcast)

Summary: The CEO of the Amsterdam-based Backpage.com—the "world's largest online brothel"—was arrested at the Houston airport on October 6, 2016, charged by the state of California with pimping, conspiracy, pimping of a minor, and attempted pimping of a minor. Two months later, Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman threw out the government's case on the grounds that the law protects online platforms from criminal liability for user-generated content. "Congress has spoken on this matter," Bowman wrote in a preliminary decision citing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA). "[A]nd it is for Congress, not this court, to revisit." The prosector in that case, state's attorney general (and now junior senator from California) Kamala Harris immediately filed new criminal charges against Backpage. Last month, the company decided to close its adult ads section after years of legal harassment. On today's podcast, our guest is legendary free speech attorney Robert Corn-Revere, who represented Backpage.com. The conversation touched on the history of the Communications Decency Act, why Backpage's move to close of its adult ads section has made it more difficult for law enforcement to catch sex traffickers, how Anthony Comstock "set the playbook" for today's censors, and what Trump's election means for the First Amendment. (Note: The conversation was recorded on January 17, before the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.)