Justice Department’s ‘Operation Choke Point’ unfairly targets businesses it doesn’t like.

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Glenn Reynolds:

They told me if I voted for Mitt Romney, our moralistic Department of Justice would be trying to shut down porn stars. And they were right: I voted for Romney, and sure enough, the Department of Justice is trying to shut down porn stars. Along with a lot of other, perfectly legal businesses. But I’ll bet if Romney were in the White House, there’d be more coverage in the press.

A while back, some adult performers noticed that banks were terminating their accounts. The reason, it turned out, was a Justice Department program called “Operation Choke Point.” This program, apparently, seeks to target businesses regarded as undesirable — like porn — by hitting them at a financial “choke point”: their bank accounts.

Though the Justice Department can’t prosecute people for making porn, because the First Amendment prohibits that, and too many people would think of them as blue-nosed morality police, which is politically undesirable, it can use its power to put them out of business extra-legally, by pressuring banks to cut off their accounts. Prosecutors and regulators have a lot of discretion, and the threat to use (or abuse) that discretion in ways that make banks uncomfortable provides a lot of leverage. Sure, banks make money off of the accounts of porn performers (and other targeted businesses), but not enough to make up for the hassle of being targeted for harassment by the feds.

As Timothy Geigner of TechDirt puts it:

Let’s not mince words: A program that was built upon the goals of stopping financial fraud has devolved into a massive government overreach into private businesses that are operating within the law. The way it works is that the DOJ informs financial institutions that certain industries are more likely than others to be involved in unauthorized charges of consumer credit and bank cards. They likewise inform the banks that the DOJ is going to keep a special super-awesome close-eye on these industries, with the implication being that there will be a great deal of prosecutorial action, subpoenas, and scrutiny on those industries, not to mention penalties on the institutions that work with them. The intention of the government, it would seem, is to make the banks unwilling to deal with the government harassment and simply cut anyone in those industries off from the financial institutions.

It’s not only adult stars that are being targeted. Justice Department targets include industries as diverse as ammunition sales, coin dealers, payday loans, “racist materials,” etc. And, again, these are all legal businesses that haven’t been charged with breaking any laws — the Justice Department just doesn’t like them.

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I, again, use the example of the Texas abortion law to show how, as far as regulation goes, liberals believe “good for thee, not for me”. While they propose all kinds of restrictive and prohibitive regulations, fees and restrictions on gun purchase and ownership, apply a bit of regulation to abortions and you have suddenly shredded the Constitution, covered it with the flag and taken a dump on it.

This same tactic SHOULD be used on left wing enterprises, most notably on anything George Soros gets involved in. If for no other reason, just to watch the squalling by the left as they whine about how unfair it all is.

that’s the way they ask for money by threatening the busyness of closing their accounts,
that’s the way of the bullies,
it make me think that, the godfather should act in a way to have his dog surprise in his bed,
under his sheets one day as a warning,
the administration use fear to intimidate the citizens,
you have to play their games,
remember him saying to the student YOUNGS ARE DOING WHAT HE ASKs? that is, get in their faces,
if they bring a knife , bring a gun,
that’s what is happening in the schools now,
the young learned the game of OBAMA,
HOW TO INTIMIDATE THE CITIZENS, WELL THE knockout game
was successfull, it had many hurt falling on the concrete floor,
and the players where laughing and taking pictures,
it stop when one white shot the young black,
they learned from up there,