Judge Charles Kocoras had been expected to grant a motion made by e360Insight, which sued Spamhaus for placing it on the company’s blacklist.
London-based Spamhaus had initially declined to defend the suit on jurisdiction grounds, promoting Kocoras to enter an $11.7 million default judgment against the company.
The default judgment marked a hallow victory for e360Insight, according to the company’s lawyer, Bart Loethen, who said he had little choice but to ask the court to take down the Spamhaus site.
While Spamhaus and many legal experts believed Kocoras would grant the order, few believed a U.S. court had the authority to order ICANN to shut down a domain.
Officials at ICANN said they would refuse to comply with the order.
Ducking the question of an American court’s power to compel ICANN to act, Kocoras instead declined to issue the order on the ground’s that shutting down the site would curtail many lawful Spamhaus functions.
“The suspension would cut off all lawful online activities of Spamhaus via its existing domain name, not just those that are in contravention of this court’s order,” Kocoras said.
Spamhaus CEO Steve Linford said he was “extremely relieved” by the ruling.