A group of lawyers in the United States of America have started protesting the Tornado Cash sanctions. According to these lawyers, these sanctions against the crypto project are tentatively holding back freedom of speech in the country.
The central argument of these lawyers is that smart contracts are not listed as a form of property in the Constitution. They also stated that members of a smart contract do not belong to any organization by the law. So, the sanctions on the Tornado Cash token and project are a kind of restriction on freedom of speech in the country.
Fueled by these arguments, a group of crypto engineers and investors sued the US Department of Treasury for violating the rights of the crypto protocol.
BTW Tornado Cash protocol is available on many other popular chains in addition to #Ethereum mainnet. @BinanceChain @gnosischain @0xPolygon @optimismPBC @arbitrum @avalancheavax pic.twitter.com/PM6taKXbMs
— 🌪️ Tornado.cash 🌪️ (@TornadoCash) February 7, 2022
The plaintiffs of this case argued that the US Department of Treasury sanctions against the Tornado Cash protocol violates the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). From their arguments, the plaintiffs of this case said the Department of Treasury failed to identify the physical assets and establishments of the Tornado Cash. Instead, they went after the protocol, which reportedly goes against the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). They also highlighted that the US Department of Treasury has no interest in the Web3 and smart contract sector. They were just targeting Tornado Cash while reeling out their sanctions.
Apparently, the major highlight of these plaintiffs was that the US Department of Treasury failed to show that an entity owned the Tornado Cash smart contract. "The Department has failed to establish that the immutable smart contracts can be owned," the filing stated.
The US Department of Treasury Breaks First Amendment's Free Speech Clause
According to the filing from the plaintiffs, they also argued that the US Department of Treasury failed to show that Tornado Cash was an unincorporated association, as they claimed. They said the Treasury doesn't have any evidence that supports their accusation.
"There is nothing in the record to suggest that those token-holders have combined to execute the supposed 'common purpose' of operating, promoting, or updating the Tornado Cash privacy protocol," the filing further stated.
The plaintiffs say that if the U.S. The Department of Treasury is allowed to impose those sanctions on Tornado Cash; it would be a violation of the First Amendment's free speech clause. The plaintiffs filing states that United States citizens can be allowed to interact with smart contracts in the First Amendment's free speech clause.
"The Department's action violates the First Amendment's free speech clause as it prohibits Plaintiffs and thousands of other law-abiding American citizens from interacting with open-source code to engage in a wide range of speech protected by the First Amendment," it said.
Evidence Against Tornado Cash Token Fake
The plaintiffs of this case say that the evidence that Tornado Cash is a money laundering tool is fake and unstable for the court case.
While this other case is going on in the United States, the developer of the Tornado Cash protocol is also facing a court case over the use of his platform for money laundering. The case is being held in the Netherlands, which could lead to millions in fines.