Operation Choke Point May Lead to Stranglehold on Constitutional Rights for Us All

They say politics makes for strange bedfellows. I think that may be no truer than in the Department of Justice’s Operation Choke Point.

While a trivial thing like the Constitutional right to free speech prevents the government from shutting down the burgeoning porn industry, some federal officials have taken it upon themselves to find a work around.

In Conjunction with the FDIC and others, the DOJ has been pressuring banks to close the accounts of those in the porn industry. Here’s where the bedfellows are going to get strange.

While I would like to see an end to the relentless barrage of pornography that inundates today’s media and the internet, I cannot help but stand in opposition to Operation Choke Point.

The porn industry is the tip of the iceberg. So far businesses targeted have included payday lenders, ammunition sales, dating services, and online gaming sites.

Here’s the kicker. Who decides what gets targeted, and who’s next on the hit list?

According to Elizabeth Nolan Brown, writing for Reason.com,

In a March 2013 hearing before a Senate Banking subcommittee, Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) pointed out the obvious: that DOJ has "no statutory authority" to be doing this. But why bother with statutory authority when you can just secretly strong-arm highly regulated businesses into doing what you want?

Call me paranoid, but if you thought forcing a photographer to cover a gay wedding was bad, I think if this isn’t stopped we’re at the top of a very slippery slope.

http://reason.com/blog/2014/04/28/doj-operation-chokepoint-and-porn-stars

http://nws.mx/1k5n0dg