The Swiss bank that succeeded temporarily in shutting down wikileaks.org has decided to withdraw its federal court lawsuit against the whistleblower website. The Julius Baer Bank on Wednesday entered a voluntary dismissal of its suit, “without prejudice”–meaning that the bank is keeping open the option of refiling the same suit in another court.
The bank acted following a hearing last week in which federal District Judge Jeffrey White ruled that its suit faced major First Amendment and jurisdictional obstacles. Reversing his earlier orders, the judge rescinded a permanent injunction against wikileaks’ domain registrar–which had the effect of shutting down the site–and declined to extend a narrower temporary restraining order directed at wikileaks.
The bank faced an uphill battle in federal court. It may also have been concerned that, had it persisted with the litigation, it risked being ordered to pay the attorney’s fees of the various groups and individuals who joined the case on the side of wikileaks.
-PS