A lawsuit is a powerful weapon. Regardless of the merits of the suit, it's expensive to defend. When the defendants are extremely shallow-pocketed bloggers, the potential is high for a lawsuit to scare the defendants into silence. One of the few tools the system has against such abuses is the ability to assign attorneys' fees.

EFF reports that the California court used that tool against one Mordecai Tendler, a former rabbi whom anonymous bloggers had accused of sexual misconduct.

Rabbi Tendler was expelled from the Rabbinical Council of America in March 2005 after several women that he professionally counseled accused him of sexual abuse and harassment. One of his accusers sued him in December 2005, and his congregation dismissed him from his post earlier this year.

Both the mainstream media and blogs picked up the story. In an effort to silence his critics, Tendler filed a lawsuit in Ohio (though he lives in New York) to identify several anonymous bloggers, alleging false and defamatory accusations. Tendler then filed a case in San Jose, Calif., to obtain subpoenas compelling Google to disclose information identifying four bloggers.

After the bloggers struck back with a motion to dismiss the suit as baseless, Tendler backed off, withdrawing the subpoenas and moving to dismiss the suit. But that's not the end of the story

Last week, the court awarded the bloggers attorneys fees - essentially punishing Tendler for pursuing a meritless suit. Says EFF: "Frivolous filers take heed: California courts like free speech, and they don’t like to waste time on meritless lawsuits designed to chill that speech."