MONTANA: Nazi Loses Bid To Quash Harassment Suit

The Associated Press reports:

A federal judge’s decision to allow a lawsuit to proceed against the publisher of a neo-Nazi website is “dangerous for free speech,” the publisher’s attorney said Thursday.

Attorney Marc Randazza said he believes U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen made a legally flawed decision Wednesday in ruling the First Amendment does not shield Daily Stormer publisher Andrew Anglin from being sued for his followers’ anti-Semitic harassment of a Jewish woman and her family in Montana.

Randazza said he can “see the allure of not wanting to rule in favor of the Nazi,” but expressed concern that the decision could be used to curtail free speech in many other forums.

The Missoulian reports:



In an order issued Wednesday in Missoula, U.S. District Court Judge Dana Christensen denied Anglin’s motion to dismiss the complaint. Anglin had argued the First Amendment protects the speech at issue and said he could not be held liable for the speech of others.

In the order, the judge notes Anglin publishes “an alt-right website, the Daily Stormer, which derives its name from Der Sturmer, an unofficial pro-Nazi propaganda tabloid.” In 2016, Anglin called on his readers to direct an “old fashioned Troll Storm” directed at Gersh, publishing her contact information along with that of her husband and 12-year-old son.

Gersh is a real estate agent, and the Daily Stormer focused on her interaction with Sherry Spencer, another Whitefish resident and mother of “prominent neo-Nazi Richard Spencer,” the order said. Gersh discussed the sale of real estate owned by Spencer, who was “facing boycotts related to her son’s notoriety.”