The argument that "code is speech" and therefore protected under the First Amendment does not hold up in court, according to a legal paper by Kyle Langvardt, assistant professor of law at the University of Nebraska College of Law. Langvardt argues that the concept is being used to protect crypto businesses from regulation and that these arguments are "badly out of step with First Amendment case law and probably worthless in court." The paper comes as Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev faces charges of facilitating the laundering of billions of dollars, with privacy advocates rushing to his defense using the "code is speech" argument. Langvardt says these arguments could help firms sidestep regulation and even debase the First Amendment.
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