The motion seeks to reopen Tornado Cash to all US-based citizens in an effort to rectify what the plaintiffs, including Coinbase, claim are violations of their constitutional rights.
Six plaintiffs in the Coinbase-backed lawsuit against US government sanctions against Tornado Cash filed a motion for summary judgment on Wednesday, contending that the cryptocurrency aggregator cannot be sanctioned as property due to its design.
The motion seeks to reopen Tornado Cash to all US-based citizens in an effort to rectify what the plaintiffs, including Coinbase, claim are violations of their constitutional rights.
The case has implications for the legality of privacy-enhancing technologies and the ability of U.S. citizens to utilize them.
In response, Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal tweeted on Wednesday that the arguments presented by Joseph Van Loon, Tyler Almeida, Alexander Fisher, Preston Van Loon, Kevin Vitale, and Nate Welch were “simple yet effective.”
Grewal stated that while privacy could be violated in certain circumstances, the law in the United States recognizes that “we don’t take away privacy from everyone just because a few have committed illegal acts.”
In defense of Tornado Cash, the plaintiffs argue that the government cannot sanction the mixer because it is software and not a foreign “national,” “person,” or group of individuals who have never met.
The US Treasury added Tornado Cash to OFAC’s SDN list in August of last year after allegations that the platform was used to launder $7 billion worth of digital assets from criminal and state actors.
A month later, Coinbase joined the six individuals and offered to finance the litigation to remove the mixer from OFAC’s list and halt Treasury’s “significant unauthorised expansion of authority.”
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