University of Louisiana VP SLAPPs Professor

In 2003, former University of Louisiana at Monroe professor John Scott was sued on the basis of comments he made in an anonymous website called the “Truth at ULM” that criticized the university administration. Richard Baxter, the university’s then vice president for external affairs, sued Scott for several online postings, including one calling Baxter the “Vice-President of Excremental Affairs.”

The Shreveport, La., court dismissed the suit against Scott under the Louisiana anti-SLAPP law, writing, “We believe that publishing statements relating to matters of public interest on a Web site is an exercise of one’s constitutional right of free speech.”

See Baxter v. Scott, 847 So.2d 225 (2003).