Bank Julius Baer has dismissed its lawsuit against Wikileaks

[DAVID FARBER <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Paul Levy" <plevy () citizen org>
> Date: March 5, 2008 4:51:53 PM EST
> To: <dave () farber net>
> Subject: Bank Julius Baer has dismissed its lawsuit against Wikileaks
>
> I am pleased to announce that Bank Julius Baer, in an act of good
> judgment that has been lacking since the outset of its attempt to
> “take down” the wikileaks web site, has now dismissed its
> lawsuit.   This dismissal comes in the wake of our private warning to
> the bank’s counsel that, if the case were not dismissed, not only the
> existing defendants but the intervening defendants such as Public
> Citizen and the California First Amendment Project could seek attorney
> fees under California law that is designed to protect the exercise of
> First Amendment rights on matters of public interest against meritless
> lawsuits such as this one.
>
> Although the Bank’s notice of dismissal warns of the possibility that
> the Bank may bring the same lawsuit in some different court, we are
> confident that judges in such future cases will have learned the  
> lesson
> taught by the proceedings in federal court in San Francisco - that a
> prior restraint should not issue against free speech no matter how
> serious the plaintiff’s claim of wrongdoing may sound, especially when
> those whose First Amendment interests are at stake have not been  
> able to
> get to court to explain the flaws in the plaintiff’s case. When courts
> issue prior restraints against free speech on a few days’ notice,
> mistakes are inevitable, and in our constitutional tradition, court
> should bend over backwards to avoid improper orders against free
> speech.
>
> The notice of dismissal, as well as Public Citizen’s other filings in
> the case, can be found at
> http://www.citizen.org/litigation/forms/cases/CaseDetails.cfm?cID=460.
>
>
>
> Paul Alan Levy
> Public Citizen Litigation Group
> 1600 - 20th Street, N.W.
> Washington, D.C. 20009
> (202) 588-1000
> http://www.citizen.org/litigation

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