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 yesterday.
The high court let stand a federal appeals court’s ruling that the University of Texas did not 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 and argued that the federal Can-Spam Act of 2003 overrides 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 rights under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Though White Buffalo apparently obtained the addresses legally, the school started blocking the e-mail messages saying White Buffalo was part of a larger spam problem that had crashed its computer system.
The University of Texas issued a cease and desist order, but White Buffalo refused to comply, according to reports. So the University of Texas blocked all of White Buffalo’s e-mails.
