PASADENA, Calif. — The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has scheduled a date for oral arguments in the Backpage.com case, which are now set to occur remotely on August 11.
The hearing will be based in Pasadena, California, though prosecutors and attorneys for defendants Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin will appear electronically via video call or phone call. The arguments will be livestreamed.
Lacey and Larkin’s attorneys allege that the Department of Justice’s seizure of assets from the former Backpage.com owners is unconstitutional.
According to sources close to Lacey and Larkin, the court announced that, “unless a three-judge panel of the Ninth decides to rule on the parties’ briefs alone, oral arguments in the case will take place remotely on August 11.”
The Ninth Circuit’s courthouses are currently closed to the public due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lacey and Larkin argue that the assets seizure makes it impossible for them to defend themselves properly from the federal government’s charges related to their ownership of adult classified website Backpage.com, shuttered by the FBI in 2018 shortly before the passage of the FOSTA/SESTA legislative package.
The criminal trial, to be held in Arizona, was postponed in February to the middle of August. The government accuses the company of “participation in a conspiracy to facilitate and promote prostitution,” and also of money laundering, human trafficking and other charges.