Legion Troll
A fine upstanding poster
The U.S. Senate voted on Thursday to hold classified ad website Backpage.com in contempt of Congress, invoking the measure for the first time in more than two decades amid allegations the site facilitates sex trafficking of children.
The Senate voted to hold Backpage in civil contempt after it did not comply with a subpoena to hand over documents explaining how it combats sex trafficking in ads on the adult section of its website.
The site is the second-largest online classified ad service in the United States after Craigslist.
The move will allow Senate lawyers to bring a lawsuit in federal district court to force compliance with the subpoena and could set up a battle over free speech.
In a statement, Steven Ross, a lawyer at Akin Group representing Backpage, said the Senate has attempted to wage an attack on the company's free-speech rights as a publisher.
Ross said Backpage welcomed the Senate vote, arguing it would allow the firm to present its arguments before the courts.
The Senate vote was the first time it has issued contempt charges since 1995, when the chamber was investigating then-President Bill Clinton's Whitewater real estate dealings.
The vote arose from a subpoena request from the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which asked Backpage to provide information on how the company screens postings for sex trafficking.
Senator Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican and the panel's chairman, charged Backpage with impeding the congressional inquiry.
Portman said Backpage's First Amendment argument was "nonsense."
http://www.reuters.com/article/usa-congress-trafficking-idUSL2N16P1N4