Washington, DC (PRWEB) April 2, 2007 – On March 26, 2007, a new federal law restricting Americans from contacting foreigners through internet dating sites was upheld by a federal court after a Constitutional challenge by an internet dating company.
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According to Tristan Laurent, President of the advocacy group Online Dating Rights, “We will now have to take legal action from the point of view of the users of online dating sites. The whole idea that it is now a crime for American men to send emails to women in other countries is so preposterous it is beyond belief. The judge’s ruling that there is no Constitutional violation in forcing Americans to divulge all sorts of highly personal information to a complete stranger or scammer abroad before the American can even say hello or know to whom he is writing is only exceeded in foolishness by Congress in making the law.”
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IMBRA makes it a felony for an internet dating company, that primarily focuses on introducing Americans to foreigners, to allow any American to communicate with any person of foreign nationality without first subjecting that American to a criminal background check, a sex offender check and without first having the American certify any previous convictions or arrests, any previous marriages or divorces any children and all states of residence since 18. Match.com is excluded from the law, and the judge found that this exception posed no challenge to the Fifth Amendment equal protection clause because American women are supposedly not abused by American men that they meet on the internet, and thus are not in need of protection.
Source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/4/prweb515227.htm
It’s to regulate ‘marriage broker’ sites, not dating sites. You know, the ‘marry a beauteous Russian bride’ type sites.
Duckster:
WTF???
Un fucking believable. Surely this won’t stand up to a constitutional challenge. It sounds like a complete violation of 1st Amendment rights.
The law was sponsored by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-KS and Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-WA and was championed by key women’s groups. The law was passed after these groups made claims that foreign women who marry American men are subjected to higher rates of abuse than are American women. However, the only study that addresses this issue was done by the INS in 1999 and it found that the rate of abuse in such international marriages is one-seventh the rate of abuse in domestic marriages
Shit, are these women’s groups trying to get rid of the only hope for socially inept middle class nerds?
Un fucking believable. Surely this won’t stand up to a constitutional challenge. It sounds like a complete violation of 1st Amendment rights.
Shit, are these women’s groups trying to get rid of the only hope for socially inept middle class nerds?
The nerds can still use dating sites. Seems that there were a few too many certifiable nutjobs sending away for foreign wives and then mistreating them when they reached the USA. So the mail order brides are out but your lady denizens of match. com and yahoo personals and whatever else are still available.