State Supreme Court Throws a Monkey Wrench in Anti-Spam Policy: Virginia Declares Law 'Unconstitutional'

We read:

"The Virginia Supreme Court declared the state's anti-spam law unconstitutional last week and reversed the conviction of a man once considered one of the world's most prolific spammers. The court unanimously agreed with Jeremy Jaynes' argument that the law violates the free-speech protections of the First Amendment because it does not just restrict commercial emails. Most other states also have anti-spam laws, and there is a federal CAN-SPAM Act as well, the AP reports.

The Virginia law "is unconstitutionally overbroad on its face because it prohibits the anonymous transmission of all unsolicited bulk emails, including those containing political, religious or other speech protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution," Justice G. Steven Agee wrote, reports AP writer Larry O'Dell.

In 2004, Jaynes became the first person in the country to be convicted of a felony for sending unsolicited bulk email. Authorities claimed Jaynes sent up to 10 million emails a day from his home in Raleigh, N.C. He was sentenced to nine years in prison. Jaynes was charged in Virginia because the emails went through an AOL server there.

Source

It does sound like the law was badly drafted. In accordance with the 1st Amendment, religious messages should have been exempted. That they were not, however, may have been intentional.