Judge reverses ruling in Julius Baer leak case

By Philipp Gollner

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Friday reversed his earlier ruling shutting down a Web site with private bank data from Switzerland's Julius Baer Holding AG.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White reversed his February 15 order after hearing arguments by attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union and other free-speech groups that his decision amounted to unconstitutional prior restraint.

"There are serious questions of prior restraint and possible violations of the First Amendment," White ruled from the bench in his San Francisco courtroom.

"The court has serious questions whether those concerns raised before the court make the granting of the relief requested by the plaintiffs constitutionally appropriate," he added.

White ruled that Baer, based in Zurich, could continue with its lawsuit against the Web site, Wikileaks.org, and Dynadot LLC, the Web site's domain-name registrar. White had issued a permanent injunction on February 15 ordering Dynadot, based in San Mateo, California, to disable the Wikileaks.org domain.

Baer had sued Wikileaks and Dynadot earlier this month after the site posted documents including bank records of about 1,600 clients with accounts in a Baer subsidiary in the Cayman Islands.

Switzerland is known as a haven for rich foreigners seeking to avoid taxes at home as the country does not consider tax evasion a crime.

The legal storm comes as Baer and other private banks watch international pressure mount on Liechtenstein, a European principality and tax haven, to lift its veil of bank secrecy. Many countries such as Germany and the United States say such secrecy helps their citizens to evade taxes.