Anonymous speech has its day in court

May 13, 2011   •  By Zac Morgan
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On May 9, 2011, Judge Dale Kimball of U.S. District Court for the District of Utah handed down a decision that affirmed the right to anonymous political speech.  The case, Koch Industries v. John Does, was about a spoof website created by an anonymous group of individuals associated with the environmentalist organization “Youth for Climate Truth”.  

The website in question was a satirical look at Koch Industries’ political position on climate change.  The site, now unavailable on the Interwebs, purported to Koch Industries’ own homepage and contained a fake press release announcing that Koch would no longer do business with any entity that denied anthropogenic global warming.  

The media quickly zeroed in on the hoax, and no outlet reported that Koch had changed its well-known political position on environmental science.  

Nonetheless, Koch brought suit; literally making a Federal case out of the manner, suggesting Federal trademark infringement and violations of other laws, including an anti-cybersquatting statute and a computer fraud law.  (Think of it as if the butchers of London had sued Swift.)  As part of their case, Koch asked the trial court to issue subpoenas to the individuals who registered the spoof site; compelling the anonymous speakers to reveal themselves.

The Court properly struck down all of Koch’s allegations, generally on the grounds that the spoofing was political, not commercial speech.  Koch’s claims were entirely untenable; the anonymous speakers were not interested in profiting off the Koch name, they were interested in making a political point.  And, as Judge Kimball noted, “‘competition in the marketplace of [political] ideas’ is precisely what the First Amendment was designed to protect.”

The Court dismissed the suit and quashed the subpoenas, protecting the anonymous speakers from being disclosed.  The First Amendment’s right to anonymous political speech and association was properly defended by the judiciary.  

The system works.  Huzzahs are in order.

Zac Morgan

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