Welcome to the tech policy podcast, your source for policy rants and raves from Tech Freedom,

your Washington, D.C. advocate for the freedom to tinker and innovate. I'm Evan Swartzscharber,

your host on today's show, sex trafficking on the internet or lack thereof. Backpage.com is an online advertising website,

similar to Craigslist. It's number two after Craigslist and that type of classified

advertising online. And the website's embroiled in some controversy over allegations that

the website helps facilitate sex trafficking and prostitution. Joining me to discuss this is legal associate at the Cato Institute, Randall Meyer.

Randall, thank you so much for joining me.

Thank you for having me, Evan.

So, Randall, yesterday, the Senate voted 960, a unanimous vote to hold Backpage.com in contempt

for not answering Senate subpoenas and not cooperating with a month-long Senate

investigation into sex trafficking. And this certainly isn't the first time that the website

has come under fire from authorities. And you previously worked on a case where the sheriff

of Cook County, Illinois, Sheriff Joe Dart,

got, he had some beef with Backpage. So tell us about that case. Yes. So in that case,

Sheriff Joe Dart essentially used his letterhead, his office, his title to send threatening

letters to Visa, MasterCard, and other financial backers of Backpage.com.

The letters essentially threatened prosecution and investigation if the websites did not

desist doing business with Backpage and if they did not contact Sheriff Dart immediately to

try to facilitate his investigation. Now, the First Amendment protects

against officers of the court or officers of law from using their office informally to threaten

prosecutions to achieve policy ends. This has been a principle dating back to at least the

1960s in American law, and it's a very

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