[Van Loon plaintiffs challenge the U.S. Treasury Department's sanctions on Tornado Cash] Golden Finance reported that Van Loon plaintiffs appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court on September 2, challenging the U.S. Treasury Department's decision to include Tornado Cash on the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list. The plaintiffs believe that the Treasury Department's sanctions on this open source project without clear guidelines may threaten the programmer's First Amendment rights. Van Loon and his team sued the Treasury Department in September 2023, accusing it of exceeding its power. Tornado Cash was sanctioned for alleged involvement in money laundering activities, and the government claimed that the platform involved more than $7 billion in illegal funds since 2019. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) supports this lawsuit, fearing that government sanctions will have a chilling effect on open source software development. The local court had previously dismissed the lawsuit, arguing that the sanctions were limited to transactions involving Tornado Cash smart contracts and would not affect the development and discussion of open source code. However, EFF and other digital rights advocates remain concerned about the broad impact of the case and emphasize the importance of protecting programmers' rights.