Bernstein v. United States (1999)
In the 1990s, the U.S. government classified encryption source code as a munition subject to export controls. Mathematician Daniel Bernstein sued, and a Ninth Circuit panel ruled that source code is speech protected by the First Amendment. The decision was later vacated as moot after export rules were relaxed.
Encryption software moved off the munitions list, enabling modern online commerce.
It seeded the 'code is speech' tradition behind the crypto industry's slogan 'code is not custody.'
The current dispute asks whether code that moves money is expression or regulated financial conduct, the same question Bernstein raised for encryption.
