The League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA) and The
Union of Jewish Students (UEJF) filed their appeal on Tuesday in
the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. These groups won their original
case against Yahoo! in France but were then sued by Yahoo! in the
US, resulting in a declaratory judgment on 7th November to the
effect that the French order was not enforceable in the US.
“The district court judge in San Jose acknowledged that his
decision was unprecedented,” said Ronald Katz, the attorney in the
US case for the French organisations. “Therefore, it is important
that we get this decision to a higher court as soon as possible. My
clients are willing to go to the United States Supreme Court, if
necessary, because they feel strongly that Yahoo! does not have the
right to facilitate sales of Nazi memorabilia, which are illegal in
France for French citizens in France.”
Stephane Lilti, the lawyer for UEJF in France, said:
“Although the First Amendment may permit
extremist views to be expressed in the US, that is not the case in
France. We do not believe that Yahoo! should be an exception to
this law solely because it communicates via the World Wide Web. US
law should not apply in French cyberspace.”
Shortly after bringing the lawsuit in the US last December,
Yahoo! voluntarily changed its policy and now prohibits the sale of
Nazi memorabilia on its auction site. “This change is acceptable to
LICRA,” said its attorney in France, Mark Levy, “but Yahoo! is not
willing to commit to making this change permanent. We think that
would be a reasonable settlement of the case, but apparently Yahoo!
wants to circumvent the French tribunal by litigating in the
USA.”
Fourteen organisations supporting the First Amendment filed
friend-of-the-court briefs in favour of Yahoo!, but Katz contends
that, “The case is not about the First Amendment. The First
Amendment questions are obvious,” he said. He concluded:
“It is obvious that one can sell Nazi
memorabilia in the US if one wishes and it is also obvious that
there is no First Amendment protecting such activity in France. So
far we have had the French parties winning in France and the United
States parties winning in the US, which is a sterile exercise. What
is really needed here is an international treaty.”
Briefing of the appeal will begin in a few weeks. A decision is
expected sometime next year.
