Judge declares gay-hating Mass. man a festering sore, but dismisses crimes-against-humanity case against him

A federal judge in Springfield who has nothing good to say about one-time gubernatorial candidate Scott Lively today dismissed a lawsuit against him by an LGBTI group in Uganda as being outside the jurisdiction of American courts.

In a ruling in which he decried Lively's "crackpot bigotry" and "ludicrously extreme animus against LGBTI people," US District Court Judge Michael Ponsor ruled there was nothing he could do because virtually all of Lively's activities aimed at persecuting and imprisoning gays and lesbians took place in Uganda, rather than in the US, making them outside the scope of the federal Alien Tort Statute, as defined by a 2013 Supreme Court ruling on the law.

While Lively, who got 19,378 votes as an independent in the 2014 race for governor, did send e-mails of encouragement to Ugandans working on laws to legalize the imprisonment of gay men from his home in Springfield, that's hardly the sort of "forceful contact" required by the Supreme Court for a successful lawsuit under the statute, Ponsor wrote, adding that Lively's hands-on work on the effort took place while he was on visits to Uganda in 2002 and 2009.

Ponsor took pains to note the ruling doesn't mean he is taking Lively's side - and said the plaintiffs could file suit against Lively in Massachusetts state court based on his actions here.

Anyone reading this memorandum should make no mistake. The question before the court is not whether Defendant's actions in aiding and abetting efforts to demonize, intimidate and injure LGBTI people in Uganda constitute violations of international law. They do. The much narrower and more technical question posted by Defendant's motion is whether the limited actions taken by Defendant on American soil in pursuit of his odious campaign are sufficient to give this court jurisdiction over Plaintiff's claims. Since they are not sufficient, summary judgment is appropriate for this, and only this, reason.

Ponsor noted Lively's writings blame gays for pretty much every ill in world history, including Nazism and fascism in Germany and Italy before World War II and pedophilia.