Virginia Supreme Court has struck down the state’s anti-spam law

The Virginia Supreme Court has struck down the state’s anti-spam law for violating the First Amendment because it bars anonymous transmission of political, religious and other speech protected by the First Amendment and fails to limit its restrictions to fraudulent or commercial e-mail or to unprotected speech such as defamation or obscenity. Writing for the court, Justice G. Steven Agee observed, “were the Federalist Papers just being published today via e-mail, that transmission by ‘Publius’ would violate the statute” because it bars anonymous transmissions. Read the opinion here.