The University of Texas was within its rights to block unsolicited e-mail coming into its system, even if the e-mail didn’t break the law, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday.
The high court let stand a federal appeals court’s ruling that the University of Texas did not run afoul of the Can-Spam Act or violate the constitutional rights of White Buffalo Ventures-- a company running an online dating service-- when the school blocked 59,000 of White Buffalo’s e-mails in 2003.
Austin-based White Buffalo, which operates LonghornSingles.com, said its e-mail complied with all anti-spam laws. It also argued that the federal Can-Spam Act of 2003 overrode the university’s anti-spam policy.
A 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in August that Can-Spam does not pre-empt the university’s policy and that the policy did not violate White Buffalo Venture’s Constitutional right to freedom of speech.
The case is believed to be the first in which the courts considered an institution’s right to filter e-mail. It is also believed to be the first in which a court considered the breadth of the federal Can-Spam Act of 2003’s preemption provision.
In passing Can-Spam, “Congress did not mean to preempt technological approaches to combating spam,” the 5th Circuit’s decision said.
White Buffalo in February 2003 filed a freedom of information request that resulted in it obtaining nearly all of the University of Texas’ e-mail addresses.
Though White Buffalo apparently obtained the addresses legally, the school started blocking the e-mail messages after it received complaints. The school also said White Buffalo was part of a larger spam problem that had crashed the computer system.
