By John Dempsey, WLS News
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has suffered a loss in his continuing battle against online prostitution. Dart has been pressuring credit card companies not to allow their cards to be used for sex ads on Backpage.com. The company sued the sheriff, saying he was violating First Amendment protections and hurting Backpage financially.
While that lawsuit goes forward, the company asked a Chicago Federal Judge to issue a temporary injunction barring Dart from interfering in the relationship between the credit card companies and Backpage.
In August the judge said no, but now the Chicago Federal Appeals court has granted the Backpage request. The appeals court is telling Dart he cannot take any actions formally or informally, to threaten or persuade credit card companies that choose to do business with Backpage.com.
Dart has long maintained that online prostitution is illegal, and victimizes young women.
@ 2015 WLS News
