Judge Viken Boots Another Frivolous White-Supremacist Stanko Lawsuit
The U.S. District Court of South Dakota’s Western District just threw out a lawsuit that white-supremacist crank Rudy Stanko filed against Big D Oil Company earlier this year. Stanko complained that Big D Oil, which operates gas stations in Rapid City, Custer, Deadwood, Sturgis, and Belle Fourche, refused in October 2016 to distribute Stanko’s racist screed The Stampede on their property. (This blog reported last March that some less-circumspect West River gas stations allowed Stanko’s angry claptrap on their premises; Stanko stopped publishing The Stampede shortly thereafter.) Stanko argued that by “allowing other newspapers to be freely distributed or sold” on their property but not his papers, Big D Oil, its CEO, and its district manager were violating his First Amendment rights and other statutory civil rights.
Judge Jeffrey L. Viken doesn’t have time for this horsehockey. In a sixteen-page order, Judge Viken tells Stanko that Big D Oil…
1) is not the state or an entity “act[ing] under the color of state law” and thus can’t be sued for deprivation of rights under civil rights law 42 USC § 1983;
2) wasn’t conspiring with anyone against Stanko thus can’t be sued for conspiracy to interfere with civil rights under 42 USC § 1985;
3) wasn’t discriminating against any protected class… and hey! Stanko didn’t even demonstrate that he is part of a protected class. (Sorry, Rudy: saying that you are a “blue-eyed White Plaintiff… exercising his 1st Amendment politically incorrect Southern religious ideologies” does not make you a protected class.)
Judge Viken didn’t even get to the main point that should be obvious to all of us regular citizens: Big D Oil’s shops are private property, and they can display or not display whatever papers, posters, and products they want. The main points above were all Judge Viken needed to boot Stanko’s complaint.
Read more: http://dakotafreepress.com/2017/08/31/judge-viken-boots-another-frivolous-white-supremacist-stanko-lawsuit/
