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[it’s three days past April Fool’s, so that can’t be it…]

US Judge Affirms IMBRA: Americans Must Have Criminal Checks Before Contacting Foreigners on Internet

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/4/prweb515227.htm

A new federal law that makes it a crime for Americans to communicate
with foreigners on dating websites without criminal background checks
is upheld by a federal judge.

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. In European
Connections v. Alberto Gonzales, 1:06-CV-0426-CC, Judge Clarence
Cooper of the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia
dismissed a lawsuit by European Connections which claimed that the
law violated the right to freedom of speech contained in the First
Amendment to the United States Constitution. The plaintiff had failed
to challenge the law based on the First Amendment right to assemble.

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.”

The law was originally called the International Matchmaker Regulation
Act, but it did not pass Congress in previous years by that name and
it was later named the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act
(IMBRA) before it passed on December 17th, 2005. The law, which was
attached to the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act
(VAWA) was apparently not debated in public and Mr. Laurent says that
no dating company or dating site user was invited to a closed-door
Senate hearing in July 2004.

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.

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. See http://www.online-dating-rights.com/index.php? ind=downloads&op=entry_view&id en$

Online Dating Rights Director of Public Relations Jim Peterson said
of the judge’s ruling: “It is a sad day for freedom in our country
when an American has to have a criminal background check before he
can say ‘Hello” to a foreigner through the internet.” He also said
that “America is the only country in the world that regulates
communication between two consenting adults seeking to communicate
via internet, with the possible exceptions of China and North Korea.
Without new email technology, IMBRA could not have been even feasible
because people generally sent paper letters to each other’s home
addresses just a few years ago. Is it right for the US government to
make a form of communication illegal when it was the only form of
communication possible just a few years ago?”

The law has been attacked in a bipartisan fashion by prominent
feminist Wendy McElroy and by men’s rights supporter David Usher
http://capitolhillcoffeehouse.com/more.php?id=2444_0_1_0_M and by
immigration attorney Gary Bala !

Mr. Laurent says that his organization has undertaken a fundraising
drive to raise $100,000 for a class-action suit against the
government on behalf of all the men who can no longer contact women
in Canada, England, Germany, Russia and the Philippines due to this
law. Contributors are asked to visit the website at www.online-dating- rights.com.

Both Mr. Laurent and Mr. Peterson are available for media interviews
but since both have to work for a living and do not receive federal
taxpayer funding, arrangements for telephone interviews should be
made by email if possible. Contact Mr. Laurent at onlinedatingrights
@ yahoo.com and Mr. Peterson at veterans @ veteransabroad.com

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