If at first you don't succeed?

In 2006, when confronted with an anti-SLAPP defense motion, rabbi Mordechai Tendler withdrew subpoenas to Google, in which he sought the identity of anonymous bloggers who had commented on his dismissal from a New York synagogue over allegations of sexual relations with members of the congregation.

He's back ...

Public Citizen reports on its Consumer Law & Policy Blog that the "Randy Rabbi" is back, once again armed with a subpoena aimed at discovering the identity of the same anonymous bloggers.  

Tendler obtained a liability judgment against the synagogue that dismissed him, and now claims that he needs to know the identity of the anonymous bloggers to gather evidence in support of his damages claim against the synagogue.

The Public Citizen blog piece has a link to a page it maintains about the subpoena efforts, including a link to the memo in support of a motion to quash the subpoena, which was filed recently in a New York trial court by the Public Citizen Litigation Group on behalf of the anonymous bloggers.

The bases of the motion to quash are that Tendler failed to comply with a New York state procedural requirement that he state the reasons why the disclosure he seeks is warranted, and because enforcement of the subpoena would violate the bloggers' First Amendment rights.

Court protects anonymous Internet speech

In Brodie v. Independent Newspapers, the Maryland Court of Appeals recognized that the First Amendment requires certain procedural safeguards before the identity of anonymous bloggers and other Web site authors can be compelled. The Court joined the growing rank of courts in other states in applying a balancing test. The court refused to permit the disclosure of the identity of a number of individuals who anonymously posted comments on a Web site.

For a good overview of the decision, see Samantha Fredickson's article, A big win for anonymous Web speech, in the Spring issue of The News Media and the Law, published by The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

For additional details and commentary, and links to pertinent materials and other sites, see the discussion posted by Sam Bayard at the Citizen Media Law Project Web site.