A federal court order on Friday requiring Backpage.com to comply with a congressional subpoena seeking documents advanced U.S. Sen. Rob Portman’s (R-OH) efforts to combat human trafficking.
Portman, the chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), the ranking member of the committee, have led a bipartisan investigation of human trafficking on the internet since April 2015.
The senators subpoenaed Backpage, a market leader in commercial sex advertising that has allegedly been linked to hundreds of cases of sex trafficking, for documents, filing a contempt action when the website refused to comply.
A district court judge granted the contempt action on Friday and ordered Backpage to turn over the documents within 10 days.
“(Friday’s) ruling is a victory for the thousands of innocent victims of sex trafficking across the United States,” Portman said. “This is the first time in more than 20 years that the Senate has had to enforce a subpoena in court, but we are pleased that the court has vindicated the Senate’s constitutional right to gather information to help us fight the scourge of online human trafficking. We are committed to continuing our bipartisan investigation into this matter, and look forward to reviewing the subpoenaed documents that Backpage has thus far withheld from Congress.”
In her decision, U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer said that Backpage’s refusal to comply with a congressional subpoena was “untenable and without legal support” and ordered the release of the documents.
“(On Friday), the court agreed with our argument that Backpage must comply with a lawful subpoena that carries with it the unanimous support of the full U.S. Senate,” McCaskill, a former sex crimes prosecutor, said. “This is a critical, historic next step in our continuing effort to get to the bottom of Backpage’s business practices and policies for preventing the despicable crime of sex trafficking of children on the internet.”