Ninth Circuit Deletes RNC’s Lawsuit Over Gmail’s Spam Filter–RNC v. Google

Prior blog post. I previously summarized the case:

You may recall that the RNC claimed that Gmail’s spam filter was biased against Republican spam. The centerpiece of this claim was an academic study that the RNC intentionally misinterpreted, to the point where the authors criticized their willful misreading. Having had their case dismissed before, the RNC came back with new allegations:

“the RNC alleges that once it filed this lawsuit in October 2022, the email diversions ceased, despite the RNC sending even more emails leading up to and during the November 2022 election. Moreover, the RNC emphasizes that it targeted its emails to users that had engaged with RNC emails more recently and more frequently, and that Google’s own data showed that the RNC’s spam rate was within the limits suggested by Google.”

The lower court rejected Google’s Section 230 defense (incorrectly IMO) but dismissed the case on its prima facie elements. In a short memo opinion, the Ninth Circuit uncerimoniously dumps the case.

Common Carriage

In what seems to me to be consistently intellectual disingenuous “reasoning,” the pro-censorship crowd has an unrelenting fetish for wanting to treat emails like railroads. The court responds: “the relationship between an email sender and Google is an imperfect fit for the traditional carrier-passenger framework, and the RNC cites no authority extending California common-carrier regulations to the email context.”

Plus, the RNC isn’t a Gmail user (it sends emails to Gmail), so it can’t claim to be a disadvantaged customer of Gmail’s purported common-carriage service.

Negligent interference with prospective economic relations

RNC can’t show it had a special relationship with Google; the economic harm it suffered; or how Google caused it. Also, “imposing a duty of care would risk deterring
beneficial spam filtering activity.” [This is a restatment of the Moderator’s Dilemma].

Unruh Act

The RNC lacks standing: “The RNC did not transact with Gmail, does not allege that it intended to sign up for Gmail services or that it encountered discriminatory terms, and does not allege that it was a user or prospective user of Gmail.”

17200

No injunction because the RNC alleges the problem stopped in October 2022.

* * *

A reminder: all spam filters are “biased.” That’s the whole point of filtering. The evidence that Gmail’s spam filter encoded partisan bias has never been credible. Also, it’s possible (likely?) that Republican political emails disproportionately triggered anti-spam filters because their emails resembled spam (see, e.g., this article), not because of grand partisan conspiracies.

As a result, the RNC should cut its losses and accept its defeat. More likely, they’ll seek Supreme Court cert because MAGA victimhood.

Case Citation: Republican National Committee v. Google Inc., No. 24-5358 (9th Cir. Jan. 16, 2026)