The Satanic Temple is a religious organization with chapters throughout the U.S. Each chapter uses social media to communicate with members. The Washington state chapter uses accounts on Google and Twitter, as well as a primary and secondary Facebook page, Judge Jones wrote in his order.

Defendants David Alan Johnson, Mickey Meeham, Leah Fishbaugh and Nathan Sullivan were members of the Washington chapter and administrators of its social media accounts.

In March 2020, Meeham took control of the chapter's secondary Facebook page, removed all the administrators except the defendants and changed the name of the page, the order said. Meeham also allegedly posted a manifesto on the page suggesting the Washington chapter supports "ableism, misogyny and racism," as well as transphobia and police brutality.

Several days later, Johnson made similar alterations to the chapter's primary Facebook page, the judge said.

The Satanic Temple filed suit the following month, leveling five charges against the defendants: violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, and Washington's Consumer Protection Act, as well as tortious interference and defamation. The defendants moved in June to dismiss the charges.

For Johnson and Meeham to have violated the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, 15 U.S.C.A. § 1125(d), the renamed Facebook pages had to have a domain name that "is identical or confusingly similar to a protected mark," the judge said.

According to his order, the case presented an issue of first impression in the district: Are post-domain paths considered "domain names" under the ACPA?

The domain name is the first part of a URL — facebook.com — and the post-domain path, or vanity URL, occurs after the domain name, the judge explained. But The Satanic Temple argued that "the domain in question" was facebook.com/TheSatanicTempleWashington.

"This claim fails for one reason," the judge wrote. "The 'domain name' is not in fact 'facebook.com/TheSatanicTempleWashington.' The 'domain name' is 'facebook.com.' And The Satanic Temple does not claim to own it."

Citing the ACPA's statutory language and precedent from other jurisdictions, the judge declined to "stretch the ACPA to cover trademarks appearing in vanity URLs or post-domain paths."

The defamation charge was dismissed because the court is not in a position to rule on that claim, Judge Jones wrote.

"To determine whether defendants' statements were defamatory, the court or jury must inevitably … define the beliefs held by The Satanic Temple and [must] determine that ableism, misogyny, racism, fascism and transphobia fall outside those beliefs. That the court cannot do without violating the First Amendment," he said.

Furthermore, the defendants can't be sued under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 U.S.C.A. § 1030, because they never exceeded their authority as administrators of the Facebook pages, the opinion said.

The Satanic Temple argues that Johnson and Meeham violated the group's code of conduct, but the judge said the 9th Circuit has ruled that violating a code of conduct is insufficient to state a claim under the CFAA.

The Satanic Temple was represented by Matthew A. Kezhaya of Kezhaya Law and Benjamin R. Justus of Lybeck, Pedreira & Justus.

The defendants were represented by Jeremy E. Roller of Arete Law Group.