Court Quashes Rabbi's Subpoenas Seeking Identity Of Anonymous Bloggers

In 2008, a New York appeals court in Tendler v. Bais Knesses of New Hempstead, Inc.,  held that Rabbi Mordechai Tendler was entitled to recover damages against the synagogue that fired him in violation of a contract clause that provided he could not be terminated unless the action was authorized by a Rabbinical court. His synagogue's action came after several women alleged he had abused his position to have sex with them.  As outlined in a Memorandum of Law in the case, for several years, Tendler has been attempting to obtain the identities of four bloggers who have commented about the charges against him, claiming that the charges were false and in retaliation for his speaking out on feminist issues. Most recently Tendler has served subpoenas on the anonymous bloggers' counsel again seeking their identity arguing that this information is relevant to determination of damages by the trial court.  In a Nov. 16 decision in the case (full text), the court quashed the subpoenas. The court held that since Tendler had already prevailed on the issue of liability, to permit disclosure of non-parties who have a right to anonymous speech would "open the floodgates and set a precedent that this Court is unwilling to do." Public Citizen Consumer Law & Policy Blog last week reported on these developments.