Judge Allows Case Against Neo-Nazi Publisher to Proceed

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Hat tip, Popehat:

WhatCouldGoWrongHat Retweeted

Fed judge rules lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Stormer for summoning a "troll swarm" to threaten and harass a Montana family does not violate the First Amendment (at least at pleading stage).

Ct. denies motion to dismiss. https://www.scribd.com/document/393300582/Gersh-v-Anglin-Daily-Stormer-Troll-Storm-Lawsuit-Order-Denying-Motion-to-Dismiss …

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The background here is unfortunate. A Montana realtor got into a spat with Richard Spencer's mother. So his white supremacist pal Andrew Anglin used the Daily Stormer to send his followers to threaten the realtor.

She received over 700 messages, including recorded gun shots.

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Here's the central First Amendment ruling. As pleaded, the lawsuit does not violate the First Amendment, but the facts, particularly whether the realtor was or became a public figure, can be developed as the case proceeds.

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Judge Allows Case Against Neo-Nazi Publisher to Proceed

Website's call for a "troll storm" against Whitefish realtor Tanya Gersh not protected by First Amendment, judge says

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS // NOV 14, 2018

HELENA — The First Amendment’s free-speech protections do not shield a neo-Nazi website publisher from being sued for a “troll storm” by his readers that led to hundreds of anti-Semitic threats against a Jewish woman and her family, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen’s decision allows Tanya Gersh’s lawsuit against The Daily Stormer publisher Andrew Anglin to proceed on claims that Anglin invaded her privacy, inflicted emotional distress on her and her family and violated Montana’s anti-intimidation law.

Anglin accused Gersh, a real-estate agent in the Montana resort town of Whitefish, of seeking to force the mother of white nationalist Richard Spencer to leave town in 2016 by trying to persuade her to sell her commercial property. Anglin published the phone numbers, email addresses and social media profiles of Gersh, her husband and 12-year-old son and wrote, “Are y’all ready for an old fashioned troll storm?”

Gersh said her family received more than 700 threatening and harassing messages, many of them anti-Semitic, online and by phone and mail. ... Anglin argued that the First Amendment protects his speech and that he can’t be held liable for his followers’ actions. Gersh’s attorneys responded that the First Amendment was never meant to protect a campaign that aimed to destroy people’s lives. ... Christensen said Anglin’s speech against Gersh appeared to be a matter of private concern, not public concern, and that opens him to more regulation.
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[SWBTATTReg]

1. Here's the 'MOB' that really is the problem here, not the protestors we have on our side...nt