Whistleblowing website Wikileaks is back online in the US after an extraordinary about-turn by the judge who closed the site just over two weeks ago.
After a three-hour hearing on Friday, Judge Jeffrey White reversed a previous injunction by the Swiss bank Julius Baer against Wikileaks, which had published documents concerning the bank's offshore accounts.
Judge White had previously ordered the removal of the documents and the permanent deletion of the site wikileaks.org, effectively closing it. Sister sites, including the Belgian-hosted wikileaks.be, remained unaffected.
Backed up in court by a dozen lawyers from free-speech and civil rights groups, Wikileaks representatives heard Judge White acknowledge that the injunction raised serious First Amendment issues.
"There are serious questions about prior restraint, possible violations of the First Amendment, which the court can make no definitive findings about at this point," said the judge.
"It is clear that in all but the most exceptional circumstances, an injunction restricting speech pending final resolution of the constitutional concerns is impermissible."
His ruling dissolves the injunction against Wikileaks and the site's host, Dynadot.
Wikileaks reinstated its California-hosted site on Friday and also published a host of new documents supplied by Rudolf Elmer, a former employee of the bank.
The site said it would continue to "be a forum for the citizens of the world to disclose issues of social, moral and ethical concern" by "shining that disinfecting sunlight on wrongdoing".
A further hearing on May 16 will determine the final outcome in the case.
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