An update on the story of the court-ordered injunction forcing Wikileaks’s U.S. site to shut down. The Swiss-based Julius Baer bank had argued that documents leaked on Wikileaks were stolen and confidential, while Wikileaks said the documents offered insight into the bank’s shady dealings in the Cayman Islands. Now the bank is backing off, after the judge changed his mind.
The New York Times reports:
After a hearing on Friday, Judge White withdrew that order, saying that he was worried about its First Amendment implications and that he thought it might not be possible to prevent viewing of the documents once they had been posted on the Web anyway.
In its court filing, lawyers for Bank Julius Baer wrote that the bank “may, at their option, later pursue their claims, including in an alternate court, jurisdiction or venue.” But lawyers for the organizations that filed motions to intervene and friend-of-the-court briefs said they thought it unlikely that the bank would attempt to continue litigation elsewhere.
Mr. Levy said that the judge’s decision to withdraw his order would offer a powerful message in future cases in which plaintiffs might try to shut down Web sites because of the content they display.
“A judge who’s confronted with a request like the bank’s in the future is going to be much more reluctant to give this order,” Mr. Levy said. “The lesson of the case is going to be taken very seriously.”
While the site has real potential for propagandists and rumour-starters, it has also played a big role in unearthing important documents, like the one that authorized U.S. troops to chase insurgents from Iraq into Syria and Iran, the operations manual for Guantanamo troops, and evidence that Daniel Arap Moi, Kenya’s former president, laundered $4.5 billion.
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