SLAPP Blog
The information on this website is not, nor is it intended to be, legal advice. The information here is meant to provide general information to the public. We would be happy to consider your specific situation and the possibility of providing legal advice or assistance if you contact us directly.
Snyder v. Phelps and the Public/Private Distinction in First Amendment Law
The relationship between the First Amendment’s protections for free speech and the common law’s tort remedies for victims of defamatory or otherwise damaging statements has always been a complex one. As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan pointed out before she was appointed to the bench, libel law is “subject to a bewildering variety of constitutional standards.” (Private Speech, Public Purpose: The Role of Governmental Motive in First Amendment Doctrine, 63 U. CHI. L. REV. 413, 473 (1996).) Some more recent...
read moreBillionaire Romney Donor Used SLAPP Tactics to Silence Critics (In Case You Missed It)
This was originally published several weeks ago, but in case you missed it, Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com had a wonderful exposé on the SLAPP tactics used by billionaire Romney SuperPAC donor and campaign finance co-chair Frank VanderSloot. (Greenwald’s article here.) VanderSloot had been threatening legal action against journalists who dared to write virtually anything about him — despite his obvious status as a public figure, against whom defamation is extremely difficult to show, and despite the fact the statements in...
read moreWhat Counts as Speech, Anyway?
Practicing law and litigating cases on a day-to-day basis, you often lose sight of big-picture, foundational legal questions. In First Amendment law, however, it is important never to stray too far from these bigger questions, lest they come back to bite you: for example, how do you know that the conduct at issue in a given case was actually “speech” in the first place? If it was not “speech,” then the First Amendment’s free speech protections cannot apply (nor, probably, can the procedural protections of...
read moreLawsuit Challenging Screen Actors Guild Merger a SLAPP?
A group of Hollywood actors has filed suit against the film actors’ labor union in an attempt to prevent what they view as an unfair and hasty merger with another union for performance artists. After considering it for decades, the leadership of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) had seemed ready to complete the merger with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) by putting the matter to a vote of SAG members. Last week, however, the actors, including Martin Sheen and Ed Harris, filed a complaint in California...
read moreYoutube and Client Solicitation: Lawyers Beware!
Very interesting new (unpublished) opinion from the First Appellate District with significant implications for lawyer advertising and client solicitation, especially with regard to Internet and other mass media solicitation. Check out Kate Moser’s analysis on Law.com: http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202540890419&slreturn=1. The opinion can be read here: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/opinions/nonpub/A127544.PDF. The case involved a lawyer, Thomas Howard Clarke, Jr., who recorded and posted a Youtube video clip in which he...
read moreJay Leno SLAPPed?
Last week, Jay Leno joked on his television show that the Golden Temple of Armritsar in India, a holy site to the Sikh religion, was the summer home of wealthy presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The joke caused a bit of an uproar, with many charging Leno with making an insensitive and derogatory jab at the Sikh community. Now, Leno and NBC have been sued for defamation by a Bakersfield-area Sikh man, Dr. Randeep Dhillon and his organization, Bol Punjabi All Regions Community Organization, for making the joke. ...
read moreCASP attorney quoted in Businessweek article on CalPERS lawsuit against S&P and Moody’s
Paul Clifford, attorney at the California Anti-SLAPP Project, was quoted in a Businessweek article today discussing the California Public Employees’ Retirement System’s $1 billion lawsuit over Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service Inc. ratings of structured investment vehicles. The judge’s ruling in the case rejected a request by the rating companies to dismiss the case under the California anti-SLAPP law. “It’s not a ruling on the merits of the case,” said Paul Clifford, an attorney at the...
read moreLawsuit Contemplated by City of L.A. Against Occupy Protesters Could Be SLAPP
Over the holidays, news broke that the City of Los Angeles is contemplating a lawsuit against the Occupy L.A. protesters in an attempt to recover the costs of policing (and dispersing) the protests, as well as purported property damage caused by the protesters. (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/12/occupy-la-lawsuit-financial-damages.html.) If the City of L.A. decides to bring the suit, an interesting question will arise as to whether such suit (or suits) is subject to the anti-SLAPP law. The Occupy protesters will obviously have...
read moreSupreme Court Denies Review on Decision Dismissing Suit Against California GOP
Last week, the California Supreme Court denied review of a decision upholding the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by former Republican Party volunteer and state party chairman candidate David Douglas Fennell, against the California Republican Party and various prominent members of the party. The trial court had dismissed the lawsuit under the anti-SLAPP law. Fennell’s suit, brought without a lawyer, was based on charges of defamation, retaliation, and extortion, among others. Fennell alleged that party officials retaliated...
read more“To Catch a Predator” Lawsuit Partially Dismissed Under Anti-SLAPP Law
NBC Universal, Inc., succeeded in dismissing under the California anti-SLAPP law a defamation claim brought by plaintiff Anurag Tiwari after Tiwari was featured on an episode of NBC’s “To Catch a Predator” TV series. The show involves hidden camera investigations by the newsmagazine program Dateline NBC, in which the NBC investigators impersonate underage youth and lure men who contact them over the internet for sexual liaisons into sting operations, where the men are then arrested by law enforcement. Tiwari was one such...
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