During a 30-minute hearing in Pasadena, Calif., on Tuesday, July 9, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals signaled that it would likely send a case involving the seizure of millions of dollars in publishing assets from…
Note: Please see update below regarding Tuesday’s hearing. A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments at 9 a.m. on July 9 in Pasadena, Calif., on a First Amendment challenge to the federal government’s…
On Monday, July 1, federal Judge Susan Brnovich ruled against the wishes of prosecutors and in favor of a defense motion to reset the start date for the trial of six ex-Backpage honchos, allowing two newly-appointed defense attorneys an additional…
With GPS monitors on their ankles, their assets frozen, and the federal government aiming to put them in prison for the rest of their lives, Backpage’s co-founders, veteran newspapermen Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, remain as defiant as ever in…
Despite an astronomical increase in federal funding to state and local law enforcement agencies to combat human trafficking, a report released on June 20 by the U.S. State Department shows a relatively low number of cases investigated for the crime,…
In an exhaustive, 8,000 word feature for the July/August issue of WIRED, investigative reporter Christine Biederman profiles former Backpage owners and veteran newspapermen Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, explaining the First Amendment implications of their prosecution by the U.S. Department…
Like a female samurai of the Kill Bill variety, investigative journalist Violet Blue eviscerates the self-serving anti-sex trafficking industry in a recent report for Engadget that leaves Ashton Kutcher’s secretive nonprofit, Thorn, with an epic, intestines-baring belly wound. In “Sex,…
Google took another great leap forward Wednesday with an expanded hate speech policy for its subsidiary YouTube that targets abhorrent, far-right speech. It’s the latest purge from a social media colossus aimed at cleansing the internet of what many consider…
Four national non-profits dedicated to protecting civil liberties and personal freedom in the United States have lodged proposed amicus briefs with the federal court in Phoenix in support of a recent motion to dismiss by defendants in the Backpage case….
Not a day goes by that an obtuse politician, academic or talking head is not screeching for Facebook, Twitter or some other social media platform to remove content that someone, somewhere finds objectionable. The latest object of establishment ire? The…
