Legislation

Those who file SLAPPs know they are unlikely to win in court. SLAPPs, by definition, are not based on valid legal claims and should eventually be dismissed by a court. However, SLAPPs do not need to prevail in court to be effective. Getting sued is expensive, time-consuming, embarrassing, and stressful, even if the lawsuit is meritless. As a result, being sued – or just the threat of being sued – can be enough to silence people. A single SLAPP lawsuit can have a broader chilling effect.

To end the threat to free speech posed by SLAPPs, we need universal coverage of SLAPP laws across all state and federal jurisdictions. Legislation is needed at the federal level to prevent SLAPPs, dismiss them quickly from our courts, penalize those who use them, and guarantee First Amendment protections to all Americans, regardless of where they live.

The Protect the Protest coalition is working with free speech proponents across the political spectrum, who have a shared interest in legislation that protects free speech as a bedrock principle in the United States, to pass the federal Free Speech Protection Act of 2024.

There is no federal SLAPP statute that provides consistent protection across federal courts. Currently, 33 out of 50 states (and Washington, DC) have SLAPP laws, although these vary widely in scope/quality and do not provide adequate protections for some of the most dangerous hotspots for environmental and social justice activists—such as Louisiana, Florida, the Dakotas, and West Virginia. The lack of protections in federal courts leaves a crucial gap that is being exploited.