The Jaynes Case is Finally Over

Home / Blogs

The Jaynes Case is Finally Over

	By John Levine Author, Consultant & Speaker
	March 31, 2009 Views: 8,867 Add Comment

Last September the Virginia Supreme Court issued a surprise ruling that

reversed its previous decision and threw out the state’s anti-spam law on First Amendment grounds. The Commonwealth made a last ditch appeal to the US Supreme Court, which I predicted they’d be unlikely to accept. I guessed right, they turned it down yesterday, meaning the case is finally over.

Due to the peculiar facts and history of this case, the decision would be unlikely ever to affect anyone other than Jaynes, and he’s still in jail on other charges, so in the big picture it’s just a blip. I thought the VA legislature had already passed a revised law that fixed the first amendment problem, but apparently not, since the state Attorney General says he’s drafting a new law for next year’s session. Even that’s not all that important, since state laws are tightly constrained by CAN SPAM, and can only make things that are already illegal under CAN SPAM more illegal. The most useful difference a state law can make is to leave out the CAN SPAM language about awarding costs which makes a losing CAN SPAM suit potentially very expensive to the plaintiff.

NORDVPN DISCOUNT - CircleID x NordVPN
Get NordVPN [74% +3 extra months, from $2.99/month]

By John Levine, Author, Consultant & Speaker

Filed Under

Comments

The Weekly Wrap

More and more professionals are choosing to publish critical posts on CircleID from all corners of the Internet industry. If you find it hard to keep up daily, consider subscribing to our weekly digest. We will provide you a convenient summary report once a week sent directly to your inbox. It's a quick and easy read.