Craigslist Legal Issues

Craigslist Legal Issues

In the recent past, Craigslist.org has made headlines in the legal community with a Chicago based lawsuit, filed by the Chicago Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights, in February of 2006. The plaintiff in the case states that Craigslist violated the Fair Housing Act by publishing discriminatory statements in posts related to renting and selling housing.

In November of 2006, a judge decided that Craigs list could not be held accountable for the publishing of discriminating statements that violated the Fair Housing Act. The judge stated that the Communications Decency Act categorized Craigslist as a computer service that could not be held responsible for the postings of its respected members. Due to this fact, Craigslist.org is not considered as a publisher under the Fair Housing Act. Instead, Craigslist.org is considered as a service that allows the distribution of such content because the service has total control over all of the content while still retaining respect for the authors desires.

After this certain judge, Amy St. Eve, made her ruling on this issue, the Chicago Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights filed an appeal on the subject matter. While the issue is still in the appeal process, Craiglist remains completely confident that the lawsuit will be dismissed.