Federal and state courts have struggled in recent years with the level of First Amendment protection to afford to anonymous online speech. In its recent decision in In re Anonymous Online Speakers, the Ninth Circuit suggested that anonymous commercial speech deserves less protection than anonymous political speech. The Fourth Circuit took a similar position a year earlier in Lefkoe v. Jos. A. Bank Clothiers, Inc. For more on anonymous online speech, see:
- The state-by-state guides produced by the Citizen Media Law Project
- EFF's anonymity page