Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman said the state attorney general's office cannot continue prosecuting Backpage.com's CEO Carl Ferrer and two former owners.The men were charged by California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who called Backpage.com "the world's top online brothel."
The judge agreed with Ferrer and former owners Michael Lacey and James Larkin that the website's operators are protected by federal law related to freedom of speech.
Harris lacked authority to bring the charges because the federal Communications Decency Act, as a way of promoting free speech, grants immunity to website operators for content posted by users, the judge wrote in his seven-page tentative ruling.
"Congress has spoken on this matter and it is for Congress, not this court, to revisit," Bowman wrote, emphasizing the final sentence in boldface.
- nuglet
- 11-16-2016, 12:02 PM
- Bobave
- 11-16-2016, 12:14 PM
Not a surprise, when all is said and done.
- FirePhoenix
- 11-16-2016, 01:37 PM
Oh, that's right the elections are over. No need for a distracting headline to get peoples attention off the real issues. Funny how that works.
- GneissGuy
- 11-18-2016, 11:15 AM
We really need severe legal penalties for frivolous and malicious prosecution like this.