Plaintiffs to Refile Spam Email Case in State Court After District Court's Dismissal

A case alleging violations of the California Business & Professions Code's anti-spam provisions was dismissed without prejudice for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction, said an order (docket 1:23-cv-01287) signed Thursday by U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker for Western Michigan in Grand Rapids. The plaintiffs are preparing to refile the action in state court, it said. Plaintiffs Mason Farrell, Tanisha Carter, William Greenberg, Kristina Kirby, Deidre Love and Vanessa Powers, all California residents, alleged Hillsdale College and its third-party publisher affiliates, advertised in more than 1,400 unlawful, unsolicited commercial email advertisements promoting the liberal arts college’s website, goods and services. The affiliate senders took “active steps to conceal their identities” when they registered the domain names they used to send or facilitate the sending of the spams at issue, “and they are liable for their own wrongful acts,” the complaint said. Plaintiffs don’t know the true names or legal capacities of defendants designated as Does 1-1,000, who operate various domain names associated with “either sending or hyperlinking from the spams at issue" that promoted Hillsdale, Michigan, college and its website, goods and services, the complaint said. In addition to Hillsdale, the suit named defendants Pop Acta Media, O2M Digital, AOC Alerts, Backing America Now, Build Our Movement, Conservative Intel, Lead America 24, Patriot and Free, Pence News and Does 1-1,000. Most of the affiliate defendants are associated with conservative political messaging.