Crypto advocacy non-profit group Coin Center files a lawsuit against the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) over crypto mixer tool Tornado Cash’s sanctions.
According to the blog post, Coin Center Executive Director Jerry Brito and Coin Center Research Director Peter Van Valkenburgh explained the details of the lawsuit against OFAC.
They highlighted the four central claims made in the lawsuit. It contends that in imposing the sanction, the Treasury exceeded its legal power and that the Treasury’s own rules place restrictions on the Treasury’s capacity to sanction the protocol.
Also Read: Why did U.S. OFAC Sanction Tornado Cash?
It asserts that Americans ought to have the freedom to donate privately to causes and that the Treasury broke its own standards by failing to consider the sanctions’ repercussions.
Brito noted on Twitter “Not only are we fighting for privacy rights, but if this precedent is allowed to stand, OFAC could add entire protocols like Bitcoin or Ethereum to the sanctions list in future, thus immediately banning them without any public process whatsoever.”
He added that even if it means going all the way to the Supreme Court, Coin Center plans to win this lawsuit against the U.S. Treasury.
Coin Center condemns the Treasury’s inappropriate use of its sanctions authority to deny Americans access to software tools that are essential to preserving their fundamental right to privacy.
Along with Coin Center, co-plaintiffs in the case include Bankless co-host David Hoffman, former Tornado Cash user Patrick O’Sullivan, and the 688th Support Brigade’s anonymous operator.
Coin Center commended Abraham Sutherland and Consovoy McCarthy, whose legal team will defend the plaintiffs, in the blog post.
In August, Coin Center announced that it is challenging Tornado Cash sanctions imposed by the US Treasury. They wrote that the Treasury’s actions could have potentially violated U.S. residents’ “constitutional rights to due process and free speech.”
Just last month, even Coinbase decided to fund a lawsuit against the Treasury Department over its decision to sanction coin mixer Tornado Cash.
Coin Center’s blog post concluded by saying ”Privacy is normal, and when we win our lawsuit, using Tornado Cash will be normal again.”
