Rick Blum, Policy Director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, writes about President Trump's recent legal threats against the author and publisher of "Fire and Fury" to illustrate the need for stronger legal protections for journalists' reporting and other protected speech.
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Read MoreRick Blum writes:
"President Donald Trump’s legal threats against the publisher and author of the most recent insider account of the White House may strike a nerve with journalists who are fearful of expensive legal defenses and chill valuable news reporting, but the threats could lose much of their power if states or Congress strengthened a tool that judges may use to dismiss meritless lawsuits involving speech protected under the First Amendment."
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Read MoreMike Masnick with Techdirt explains the recent decision to throw out the Greenpeace RICO case on anti-SLAPP grounds in California. Read more here.
Read MoreAs part of PPP's efforts to track President Trump and the first amendment, here are several recent articles reviewing the issues:
Read MoreFrom Sasha Moss at R Street: Donald Trump has promised that if he becomes president, he’s going to “open up those libel laws so when The New York Times writes a hit piece we can sue them and win money.” To date, he’s already filed six libel suits. Highlights include his recent suit against Timothy O’Brien, author of “Trump Nation,” for asserting his net worth isn’t as high as Trump claimed it is, and toward comedian Bill Maher, who requested Trump prove he’s not the “spawn of an orangutan.”
Read MorePPP Policy Director Evan Mascagni was recently quoted in a USA Today article about Donald Trump and SLAPPs:
Trump isn’t alone in trying to “hijack the judicial system” to silence critics, said Evan Mascagni, policy director at the Public Participation Project, an advocacy group lobbying for a federal anti-SLAPP law.
Read MorePPP Policy Director Evan Mascagni was recently quoted in a Politico article about SLAPPs and Donald Trump:
Trump’s litigiousness has extended into the presidential campaign. In November, following reports of a $2.5 million pro-Kasich super PAC investment in anti-Trump ads, Trump tweeted: “I will sue him just for fun!
In some cases, he has openly acknowledged that going to court is less about seeking justice and more about joyfully punishing enemies.
Read MorePPP Board Member Laura Prather recently published a piece for Lexology about the need for federal anti-SLAPP legislation:
“Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (otherwise known as “SLAPP” suits) are more prevalent than ever given the ease of communication and multitude of platforms available for getting messages out. They are gaining even more notoriety in the presidential election since candidate Donald Trump vowed to “open up” the current libel laws to further protect him from facing public criticism.
Read MoreFrom Jason Linkins at Huffington Post:
According to reports, Republican legislators are having an uneasy time cottoning to the notion that real estate developer and white-supremacist cuddle muppet Donald Trump seems to be on the glide path to becoming their party’s standard-bearer.
Read MorePPP Policy Director Evan Mascagni was quoted in a new article about an ongoing legal dispute involving Trump University:
SLAPP, Mascagni explained to Sinclair stands for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.
“It’s basically a lawsuit brought to silence a critic,” Mascagni explained. Opposed to going to court to seek justice, the person bringing the SLAPP attempts to drown the critic in legal fees.
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