Richard Blumenthal, Lead Threatener Of Craigslist, Doesn't Even Have Jurisdiction Over Prostitution

from the totally-bogus dept

Thu, Sep 9th 2010 9:05am — Mike Masnick

We've discussed in the past how Connecticut Attorney General (and Senate candidate) Richard Blumenthal is one of the most ridiculous grandstanders out there -- especially with his bogus threats against tech companies, often with absolutely no legal basis. However, it turns out that it goes beyond just the fact that Blumenthal regularly ignores the actual laws involved (such as Section 230 safe harbors). Blumenthal, of course, has been leading the terribly misguided attack on Craigslist for having some prostitutes use the service. Once again, the law is pretty clear that Craigslist is protected by Section 230, and if Blumenthal really was concerned about prostitution, we've wondered why he doesn't go after the actual people involved for breaking the law -- as actual law enforcement officials in Connecticut have done.

Well, according to Jacob Sollum, over at Reason, perhaps the reason is that prostitution cases aren't even within Blumenthal's mandate and jurisdiction:

As Connecticut's Division of Criminal Justice explains on its website, the state's attorney general "has no jurisdiction whatsoever over criminal matters and no authority to prosecute criminal violations of the law."

So, here we have an attorney general, who you would think knows both the law and his own jurisdiction, going to the press and grandstanding, rather than filing an actual lawsuit because (a) he can't actually file the lawsuit and (b) even if he could, he'd lose.

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Filed Under: jurisdiction, prostitution, richard blumenthal
Companies: craigslist

16 Comments

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Jay (profile), 9 Sep 2010 @ 9:16am

A few thoughts.
Why does this remind me of that case where the Lacrosse players stood accused of raping a girl, and yet at least one showed that he was in a different place, receipt and everything, until that AG was disbarred for bad behavior?

It seems to me that the entire power of an AG supercedes a need to be right on the subject involved.
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Pierre Wolff (profile), 9 Sep 2010 @ 9:16am

CNN???
Wonder if CNN's Amber Lyon is on the case or ever thought to speak to law enforcement that uses Craigslist. Perhaps these are just inconvenient truths for her form of journalism :)
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2010 @ 9:59am

He's pimping himself
Betcha he'll run for a higher office on a tough on crime platform.
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Kingster (profile), 9 Sep 2010 @ 10:10am

Re: He's pimping himself
You mean like his run for a Connecticut Senator seat?
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2010 @ 10:30am

Re: Re: He's pimping himself
The sad part is that he probably win.
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Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased) (profile), 9 Sep 2010 @ 10:45am

On the Corner
Prostitutes also tend to hang out on the sidewalks, in public right-of-way, along streets to solicit their services. We should ban sidewalks and streets!
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redrum, 9 Sep 2010 @ 11:17am

"(a) he can't actually file the lawsuit and (b) even if he could, he'd lose."

And yet CL turned over faster than a drunk whore. Their lack of balls is astounding.
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dostadawg, 9 Sep 2010 @ 11:20am

nice to leave out the party he is in..thats just more of your wise and elitist libs there...
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Overcast (profile), 9 Sep 2010 @ 11:41am

He has no time to worry about the law while he's enforcing the law.
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Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 9 Sep 2010 @ 11:53am

Re:
His political polarization is irrelevant since both parties suck. (wouldn't this be conservative anyways?)
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Mike Masnick (profile), 9 Sep 2010 @ 12:17pm

Re:
And yet CL turned over faster than a drunk whore. Their lack of balls is astounding.

That's not true at all, really. They've been fighting this for at least 3 years. They stood firm for a while, then did a "settlement," which didn't help, so they did a second "settlement." And now this. What's really ridiculous is that the reason the AGs are so upset this time is that CL makes money from these ads. The only reason they started charging for those ads in the first place was because of the first settlement, where the AGs pressured CL to start charging for CL ads in order to figure out who placed them.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Sep 2010 @ 12:18pm

Re:
Did they really? The 'Censored' box was only up for one day. I assume that was just to make a statement against the AG in question. Yep, all those supposedly 'censored' ads are back up.
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ofb2632 (profile), 9 Sep 2010 @ 2:07pm

the law?
Of course he does not have any legal standing.. He dosent want real results, he wants HEADLINES!!
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Pixelation, 9 Sep 2010 @ 10:22pm

"Richard Blumenthal, Lead Threatener Of Craigslist, Doesn't Even Have Jurisdiction Over Prostitution"

Aawww crap! and I was hoping he could hook me up.

Oh well.
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bob, 10 Sep 2010 @ 3:26am

Re: A few thoughts.
You really should check the facts in the Duke Lacrosse case and Durham, NC DA prosecutor Mike Nifong.

AG Roy Cooper came out and said the Duke Lacrosse players were Innocent.
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Fugly dudes gotta get laid, 10 Sep 2010 @ 3:58pm

what?
"What's really ridiculous is that the reason the AGs are so upset this time is that CL makes money from these ads."

I thought they were complaining about underage sex trafficking. You mean they are complaining because when they told Craigslist to charge for their ads they didn't realize they would make money from them. Yeah, the AGs are pretty dumb.

Thanks for fighting our fight Mike. So glad to have a smart guy like you in our corner.
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