Does The First Amendment Protect Trolling? Daily Stormer Founder Thinks So

Neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer founder Andrew Anglin, who is being sued for instigating a "troll storm" against a Jewish woman in Montana, has said the lawsuit against him should be dropped because his actions were protected by the First Amendment.

Anglin was sued by realtor Tanya Gersh, with the help of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), for "invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress and violations of Montana's Anti-Intimidation act," in a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for Montana in April.

“The only thing he (Anglin) did was call for people to speak, but people want to draw the line for speech they don't like,” First Amendment attorney Marc Randazza, who is representing Anglin, told CNN.

"Even Nazi expression, no matter the psychic harm on Jewish residents, is nonetheless protected speech. Every word uttered by Mr. Anglin in this public dispute is protected by the First Amendment, no matter how many people find those views intolerable,” Anglin's lawyers argued, responding to the lawsuit Nov. 30.

Earlier this year, Gersh opened up about the harassment that she and her family had to face after Anglin used his website as a platform to encourage his supporters to contact her through email, social media, letters and phone calls and attack her religious faith.

Blaming Anglin for her emotional and physical deterioration, Gersh said that her harassers "are not trolls. They are terrorists."

SPLC co-counsel John Morrison told CNN, "This is not free speech, this is nothing protected by the First Amendment, this is not the expression of political opinion," "The purpose of this is to damage these people, the purpose of this is to cause them fear and emotional harm, and that's illegal."

As it turns out, speech, no matter how offensive and discriminatory it may sound to certain people, is protected under the constitution.

The First Amendment protects an individual or a group’s “freedoms concerning religion, expression, assembly, and the right to petition. It forbids Congress from both promoting one religion over others and also restricting an individual’s religious practices. It guarantees freedom of expression by prohibiting Congress from restricting the press or the rights of individuals to speak freely.”

Going by this law, in August 2017, the Supreme Court overrode the Patent and Trademark Office by giving lead singer Simon Tam the permission to trademark the name “The Slants” for his rock band – a term that PTO had denied to trademark, owing to the fact that it is racially offensive to the Asian-American community.

“Speech may not be banned on the ground that it expresses ideas that offend,” Justice Alito declared in that case. “Speech that demeans on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, disability, or any other similar ground is hateful; but the proudest boast of our free speech jurisprudence is that we protect the freedom to express the thought that we hate.”

Meanwhile, Anglin’s attorneys have also argued that their client did something similar to what Gersh did to white supremacist leader Richard Spencer’s mother, Sherry Spencer.

"Ms. Gersh was involved with planning a boycott and protest of Mrs. Spencer's business. Thus, Ms. Gersh condones collective action to express a political opinion — so long as that political opinion is one that she favors," Anglin's attorneys wrote in the case for dismissal.