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Craigslist Shielded From Prosecution In SC
viyh writes with an update to the ongoing legal troubles faced by Craigslist over their adult-services ads. According to CNN, a South Carolina judge has told the office of the state's Attorney General, Henry McMaster, to cease their efforts to bring criminal charges against the operators of Craigslist.
"On Friday, Judge Weston Houck granted Craigslist's request for a temporary restraining order preventing McMaster and his employees from 'initiating or pursuing [any] prosecution against Craigslist or its officers and employees in relation to content posted by third parties on Craigslist's Web site' until the court rules on the merits of the site's lawsuit. Craigslist's lawsuit cites an interview McMaster gave to Fox News on Monday, in which he likened the site 'to a hotel or motel owner that knows prostitution is going on on their premises and fails to do anything about it especially after having been told.'"
Since when do judges get to decide who can be prosecuted?
Since when do pilots get to fly planes?
Since when to mechanics get to fix cars?
Who, pray tell, do you believe is supposed to judge who has a valid case or not? What would you call the person who you have the job of making that judgement?
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
Chances are good your local yellow pages also has a section dedicated to "erotic services". I don't see those going away. SC just thinks it can play "but it's on the internet" card and get away with it.
South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster says Craigslist deserves to be prosecuted because the site is like "...a hotel or motel owner that knows prostitution is going on on their premises and fails to do anything about it, especially after having been told."
Perhaps Mr. McMaster himself should be prosecuted. Prostitutes openly flaunt their wares on the streets of every major city in his state, yet McMaster has failed to limit their activities in any meaningful way. If he put half the time and effort into cleaning up South Carolina's sin-soaked streets as he has attempting to prosecute a glorified Want Ads site, perhaps that situation could be improved.
Of course, that might involve busting a few familiar faces (cough Spitzer cough).
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
It's much more efficient making crime impossible than trying to catch law-breakers (see, for example, gun prohibition). Prostitution is similarly prohibited not because it is criminal in itself, but because it is associated with kidnapping and drug-trafficking and in this case murder. Craigslist is really being accused of not protecting prostitutes from getting themselves murdered. Sure, limiting one website has a limited effect, but it's a step to restricting communication on all websites. If government got its way and most of the internet was shut down and everyone needed to produce ID and submit to interrogation when they left their homes, prostitution along with most other crimes would end. That is until a computer in the FBI basement comes to the conclusion that just exterminating everyone would be a more cost-effective crime-fighting measure.
We've had legalized prostitution in New Zealand since 2003.
I agree wholly with your reading of the situation, but one small correction: prostitution hasn't been legalised, it's been decriminalised. As I understand it (IANAL) that means basically that it's unregulated -- no employment or health-and-safety regulations, for example, other than the kind of endangerment and contractual issues that apply to everyone regardless of their line of work.
In some ways I find this a much preferable situation to legalisation, as (a) it's purer capitalism -- less regulation --, and (b) it's not about promulgating an arbitrary set of social values, or protecting an industry, but more about protecting the rights and safety of the sex worker. (There may be unwelcome side effects as well, of course.)