US judge to rule on Nazi ‘troll storm’ against Jewish Montana woman

Attorneys for a neo-Nazi website publisher and a Montana woman will ask a judge today to decide whether the white nationalist had a First Amendment right to unleash a “troll storm” of anti-Semitic messages and threats against the woman’s family.

US Magistrate Judge Jeremiah Lynch is scheduled to hear arguments in Missoula on whether to dismiss a lawsuit by Tanya Gersh, a real-estate agent from the mountain resort community of Whitefish, against The Daily Stormer publisher Andrew Anglin.

The judge had previously ruled against Anglin’s argument to dismiss Gersh’s claims of emotional distress, intimidation and invasion of privacy because Anglin is “not a citizen of any state” and has been living abroad for years.

But the judge wanted to hear from attorneys on both sides in the courtroom before he ruled on another key argument in Anglin’s motion to dismiss — that the neo-Nazi publisher was engaged in political speech protected under the First Amendment.

— AP