Dist. Ct. erred in denying plaintiff’s motion for preliminary injunction seeking to have defendant cease his efforts at coercing credit card companies to prohibit their customers from using companies’ credit cards to purchase advertisements on plaintiff’s website, that included advertisements for “adult” services related to male, female and transsexual escorts, strippers and strip clubs and other jobs related to services offered in other adult categories. Record showed that: (1) defendant, while using his title as Cook County Sheriff, sent letter to credit card companies and requested that said companies “immediately cease and desist” from allowing individuals to use companies’ credit cards to place advertisements on plaintiff’s website; (2) defendant, while citing to federal money laundering statute, intimated that said credit card companies might be criminal accomplices to industry that victimizes women and girls; and (3) credit card companies agreed with defendant to stop allowing such use of their credits cards shortly after receiving defendant’s letter. As such, Ct. of Appeals found that preliminary injunction should have been entered against defendant where: (1) credit card companies were victims of govt. coercion that was aimed at shutting down plaintiff’s adult section on its website; and (2) defendant improperly employed threats of prosecution/sanctions for future speech, which was tantamount to unlawful prior restraint. Ct. further observed that although defendant as private citizen could denounce plaintiff’s actions in maintaining its website, he could not use his govt. title to make legal threats in effort to shut down website.
Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
First Amendment