Constitutional Law

High Court Won't Consider Va. Decision That Barred Anti-Spam Law

The U.S. Supreme Court today turned away Virginia's request to review a lower court decision that invalidated the state's anti-spam law. The Virginia Supreme Court concluded that the anti-spam law violated the First Amendment because it also prohibited political and religious messages from being sent via e-mail. The law in Virginia v. Jaynes was intended to bar unsolicited commercial e-mail.

The high court announced it would hear oral argument in a water-dispute case involving the Carolinas. Specifically, the justices will consider a Special Master report on the dispute. Lyle Denniston writes for SCOTUSblog that the justices must decide whether other entities should be allowed to enter the litigation. Denniston notes that the U.S. Solicitor General 'joined South Carolina in resisting a recommendation by a Special Master who is processing the case to allow the city of Charlotte, N.C., plus an interstate water supply organization and a hydroelectric power company, Duke Energy Carolinas, to enter the case as parties. Special Master Kristin Linsley Myles, in a report formally filed in January, urged the Court to allow all three to intervene. It is that report, an interim recommendation in this water-sharing dispute, that the Court will consider at oral argument.'

Full post as published by ACS Blog on March 30, 2009 (boomark / email).