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April 5th, 2007

(Several thousand people have read this and Reddit is only showing 2 up votes? Do you guys not use Reddit?)

HAHA! “They” may hate us for our freedom, but if you’re an American, don’t try chatting up any foreigners online without the seal of approval from Cheney’s Magic 8-Ball.

Do you notice what’s happening here?

As Americans go to interact with the outside world, what they’re finding more and more of is red tape.

Try getting a FOREX account that allows you to send your money out of the United States at will.

If you don’t have a U.S. passport already, try to get one, just don’t hold your breath.

Will you be allowed to board your flight out of the U.S.?

Have you paid your exit tax?

Want to renounce your U.S. citizenship? Again, don’t hold your breath.

Want to correspond with a foreign person, and possibly start a relationship with that person? Well, now that’s a matter for the Department of Justice.

How long will it take for the government ink pisser to approve your plans to correspond with someone over email?

Via: prweb:

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.