Virginia v. Jaynes – This Time Really is The End

by Ethan Ackerman

The US Supreme Court has declined to grant a petition for certiorari filed by Virginia’s Attorney General in Virginia v. Jaynes. That denial means the Virginia state Supreme Court’s holding is the final say in the Jaynes case, and the Virigina spam statute is definitively unconstitutional.

While some coverage is suggesting that the Supreme Court had an opinion on this case or otherwise endorsed the ruling below, other articles are correctly framing the cert. denial – the Supreme Court didn’t agree or disagree with the Virginia Supreme Court, it merely declined to take the case. As a result, the state opinion stands.

This also means I no longer have to end each of the blog posts I’ve written on the Jaynes case with a ‘but this ruling could still be appealed further.’

An interesting final anecdote, perhaps? The outcome in the spam litigation turns out to be mostly academic for Mr. Jaynes. According to the Washington Post, he is currently in prison on unrelated securities fraud charges.