Coin Center: RESTRICT Act Creates Blanket Authority With Few Checks To Ban Just About Anything
Coin Center, the leading non-profit focused on the policy issues, shared their view on the RESTRICT act.
- Although the primary targets of this legislation are companies like Tik-Tok, the language of the bill could potentially be used to block or disrupt cryptocurrency transactions and, in extreme cases, block Americans’ access to open source tools or protocols like Bitcoin.
- The Act creates a redundant regime paralleling OFAC without clear justification, it significantly limits the ability for injured parties to challenge actions raising due process concerns, and unlike OFAC it lacks any carve-out for protected speech.
- The RESTRICT Act is deliberately targeted at restraining transactions related to information and information technologies. This targeting may mean that the Act is facially unconstitutional, and should it become law we expect it to be challenged as such.
