Gersh v. Anglin is an American lawsuit that tested whether an internet-based ideologue who provoked an anti-Semitic "troll storm" attack on a private person deserved Constitutional free speech protection.
In 2017, Tanya Gersh, a Jewish-American woman in Whitefish, Montana sued Andrew Anglin, founder of The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website.
Gersh's complaint alleged that Anglin caused attacks to be launched against her and her family, including more than 700 hateful, threatening, violent messages, electronic or otherwise.
Gersh, a real estate agent, alleged that the attacks were spurred on by Anglin as he encouraged his followers to badger her, her husband, and her young son.
"[3] The speech went viral and caused outrage in Whitefish, because he lived there part-time with his mother, who also owned a commercial building where local residents were preparing to protest.
Sometime after the call, Ms. Spencer changed her mind and published on a blog "that Gersh had tried to threaten and extort her into agreeing to sell her building, making a donation, and denouncing her son's views.
[6] Gersh and her family received emails, calls, voicemails, texts, letters, postcards, and social media comments that included threats and messages with anti-Semitic language.
"[9] Photos on The Daily Stormer website of Gersh and her son were superimposed on images of Auschwitz — a concentration camp from World War II.
[2][7] Tanya Gersh was represented by prominent Montana attorney and former State Auditor John Morrison[6] together with co-counsel David Dinielli, Elizabeth Littrell, Richard Cohen, and Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah C. Lynch denied Anglin's jurisdictional motion to dismiss, finding that he maintained significant business and personal ties to Ohio and Gersh's publication of notice of the case was sufficient service.
"[14] After the decision, attorney Dinielli told the Washington Post, "The trollers used every route to terrorize [Gersh]," calling it "intrusion into seclusion...
"[17] Dinielli said: "The real story here is that Tanya Gersh, a small-town realtor from Montana, stood up to the internet's most notorious Nazi, and she won.
"[20] In December 2020, Gersh's attorneys filed papers with the Court stating that Anglin had not paid any portion of the August 2019 judgment and that he has ignored requests for information about his whereabouts, his operation of the website, and his assets.
[21] Gersh's lawyers advised the Court that collection efforts are underway but are "time-consuming and extremely complex" given Anglin's lack of cooperation and history of holding assets in cryptocurrency.