The person who commented online on a local newspaper's site that a political candidate was a child sexual predator cannot remain anonymous, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The attorney for the anonymous commenter on a Freeport (Ill.) Journal Standard article said he was mulling an appeal to the US Supreme Court. But it would be a tough sell. Most of the nation's state courts have ruled that when it comes to defamation, online anonymity is out the door. (Comcast had refused to release the IP address account information, demanding a court order. Litigation ensued.)

The anonymous defendant claimed that there were insufficient facts to support a claim of defamation to begin with, so the identity shouldn't be unmasked over the 2011 comment. When trying to unmask an anonymous online commenter for defamation, there must be enough evidence to justify that whatever was said online was defamatory, the court said.

The flap concerned a candidate named Bill Hadley who was running for a seat on the Stephenson County board. The online comment, from somebody going by the online handle "Fuboy," likened the candidate to Jerry Sandusky, the Penn State football coach who was convicted of a series of child molestation charges in 2012. Fuboy also said that the candidate lived across the street from an elementary school named Empire.

Here's the comment at issue: "Hadley is a Sandusky waiting to be exposed. Check out the view he has of Empire from his front door."

The commenter's attorney claimed that no defamation took place because it is not a crime to have the last name of Sandusky—that a reader of the comment would be unable to discern the defamatory meaning of the comment without the benefit of "extrinsic facts."

The state Supreme Court did not agree (PDF):

In short, at the time of Fuboy’s comment, numerous men were testifying to the abuse they allegedly suffered at the hands of Sandusky when they were young boys. The general public was mindful of the fact Sandusky was accused of sexually abusing young boys. Stating that Hadley was “a Sandusky” while the scandal dominated the national news, coupled with the reference to Empire Elementary School, conveyed the idea that Hadley was a pedophile or had engaged in sexual acts with children and, thus, had committed criminal conduct.

Unless the US Supreme Court intervenes and sets aside the ruling, the candidate, who won the election, said he would forge ahead with his defamation suit against the commenter by acquiring the person's identity.

"For three and a half years I've been trying to get the name, the identity of this person," Hadley told the Chicago Tribune. "It'll be a huge victory for me, but it's practically broke me financially."

The Illinois Press Association issued some advice to online commenters: "There are folks who go through life thinking that the Internet provides permanent anonymous protection. This case makes clear that that's not true."

In case you're wondering, the Communications Decency Act protects online news outlets from claims of defamation for comments posted by their readers.