For the rich, free speech — for others, a SLAPP in the face

Carolyn Iodice: For the rich, free speech — for others, a SLAPP in the face

Fourteen years ago, the legislature passed vital protections for freedom of speech in the Texas Citizens Participation Act. This week, they’re looking to gut it.

Commentary: A SLAPP in the face

Fourteen years ago, the Texas Legislature passed vital protections for freedom of speech in the Texas Citizens Participation Act. This week, they’re looking to gut it. The TCPA addresses the common problem of “strategic lawsuits against public participation,” or SLAPPs. These are frivolous lawsuits brought by the wealthy or powerful against private citizens to stop them from exercising their free speech rights. For example, say your loved one is…

Texas legislation could weaken protections against frivolous lawsuits, warn free speech advocates

Texas bills that would reform a law protecting citizens from frivolous, intimidating lawsuits are being fiercely criticized by free speech advocates.

For the rich, free speech — for others, a SLAPP in the face

By CAROLYN IODICE Fourteen years ago, the legislature passed vital protections for freedom of speech in the Texas Citizens Participation Act. This week, they’re looking to gut it. The TCPA addresses the common problem of “strategic lawsuits against public participation,” or SLAPPs. These are frivolous lawsuits brought by the wealthy or powerful against private citizens to stop them from exercising their free speech rights. For example, say your …

Tort – SLAPP – Abuse of process

Where a Superior Court judge denied a special motion to dismiss an abuse of process counterclaim pursuant to the anti-SLAPP statute (G.L.c. 231, §59H), that decision should be reversed in light of Bristol Asphalt Co. v. Rochester Bituminous Prods., Inc., 493 Mass. 539, 560 (2024), and Hidalgo v. Watch City Constr. Corp., 105 Mass. App. Ct. 148, 153 (2024).

The Hamburg-based association Save the Rainforest has resisted a SLAPP complaint for three years. Because it denounced that the Korindo Group in Papua is destroying the rain forest. But the rainforest defenders: inside, did not give in small. The fact that politics finally deals with the strategic complaints is thanks above all to them.