Since the passing of the Can Spam Act several years ago, federal and state courts in the United States have begun cracking down on spammers, and seeking to put an end to the barrage of useless promotional e-mails clogging up our inboxes. But a controversial new spam law in Virginia seems to have gone too far.
On Monday the US Supreme Court denied a legal petition to review Virginia’s new tough anti-spam law. The denial effectively renders the law invalid, as it was already found to be unconstitutional by the Virginia State Supreme Court last year.
The law began as a reaction to infamous spammer Jeremy Jaynes, who received a nine year prison sentence in Virginia for a 2003 arrest for serial spamming online. His conviction and sentence has now been overturned, and the Virginia law which made it a felony to send out more than 10,000 spam e-mails and any 24-hour period has been ruled illegal and unconstitutional.
Back in 2004, Jaynes was convicted and sentenced under the now-defunct Virginia law. The Virginia State Supreme Court, however, overturned the sentence and questioned the legality of the harsh anti-spam Virginia law passed in 2003. The issue was then referred to the Supreme Court in Washington, who has now refused to hear the case, effectively upholding the Virginia State Supreme Court in its rejection of the controversial law.
In a unanimous decision, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that the law was “unconstitutionally overbroad” because it prohibited all types of anonymous e-mail solicitation, including religious, political and other protected speech under the First Amendment. The Supreme Court’s refusal to take up the case is virtually a death blow to the tough Virginia anti-spam legislation, and lawmakers will now have to either rewrite the law or throw it out altogether.
The Virginia State Supreme Court also pointed out that the federal Can Spam Act already deals with cases of mass commercial spamming via e-mail and other electronic means; therefore, the tough (and some would say unnecessarily tough) Virginia law making it a felony to send spam e-mails in sufficiently high numbers, is considered unnecessary as well as constitutionally invalid.
But even though the Virginia law has now been thrown out, spammers shouldn’t start jumping for joy just yet: 18 states are presently considering new tougher spam laws to supplement the federal Can Spam Act. Each one of the new laws will have to be tested on its own merits, and no doubt some will be found to be unconstitutional. Still, it serves as a reminder how seriously the courts are taking the issue of illegal spam these days — which can only be a good thing.
