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Motion to Dismiss Free Speech First Amendment

Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs, LLC

Understanding Anti-SLAPP Statutes: Do They Apply in Federal Court?

“SLAPP” is an acronym for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. The term was coined in the 1980s to describe lawsuits initiated to silence public speech about issues of public importance. Under the original...more

Vedder Price

New Jersey SLAPPs Back: New Jersey Court of Appeals Eradicates Anti-SLAPP Loophole

Vedder Price on

On May 29, 2025, the New Jersey Court of Appeals reversed dismissal in Satz v. Starr, No. A-2785-23, 2025 WL 1522032 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. May 29, 2025), holding that the plaintiff’s voluntary dismissal of his claims did...more

Mintz

Missouri Anti-ESG Rules At Risk In Court Decision

Mintz on

On January 5, 2024, Judge Bough (W.D. Mo.) denied the motion to dismiss filed by the Missouri Secretary of State and the Missouri Securities Commissioner in the SIFMA v. Ashcroft litigation. This case concerns a legal...more

Allen Matkins

Nevada Supreme Court Finds CEO's Statements To Shareholders, Directors And Officers May Be Protected Activity

Allen Matkins on

Nevada, like California, has enacted an anti-SLAPP law that is intended to protect citizens' First Amendment rights to petition the government for redress of grievances and to free speech by limiting the chilling effect of...more

Jackson Walker

Supreme Court of Texas Runs at the Low Hurdle of Prima Facie Evidence in Anti-SLAPP Motion Practice

Jackson Walker on

Last week, the Supreme Court of Texas addressed the quantum of evidence required for a plaintiff to support a prima facie case and survive a motion to dismiss brought under the Texas Citizens Participation Act, Texas’s...more

Proskauer Rose LLP

Three Point Shot - July 2022

Proskauer Rose LLP on

Welcome to Three Point Shot, a newsletter brought to you by the Sports Law Group at Proskauer. Three Point Shot brings you the latest in sports law-related news and provides you with links to related materials. In this double...more

Franczek P.C.

Supreme Court Issues Decision Affirming a Public Body’s Right to Censure Board Member

Franczek P.C. on

In Houston Community College System v. Wilson, the United States Supreme Court held that a public body’s verbal censure of a fellow board member did not violate the board member’s First Amendment rights. The censure followed...more

Perkins Coie

Anti-SLAPP Motion May Not Be Based on Speech Activities Merely Incidental to Asserted Claims

Perkins Coie on

An anti-SLAPP motion was properly denied because the claims for damages arose from breach of contract and tort actions, not from any protected First Amendment activity. Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, LLC v City of...more

Orrick - Trade Secrets Group

This Trade Secret Suit Doesn’t Infringe on Free Speech

Can defendants use anti-SLAPP statutes to dismiss meritorious trade secrets misappropriation lawsuits? A recent decision by the Fifth District Court of Appeals in Dallas suggests not....more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

The Halcyon Days Are Over: Texas Courts of Appeals Narrow the Application of the TCPA’s “Commercial Speech” Exception Even as the...

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

In a trilogy of recent cases, the Texas Courts of Appeals have employed the “commercial speech” exception to exclude certain business claims from the scope of the Texas Citizen’s Participation Act (“TCPA”). This trend will...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Fifth Circuit Holds the TCPA Does Not Apply to Federal Court Diversity Cases

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

On August 23, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued its long-awaited opinion in Klocke v. Watson, 17-11320, 2019 WL 3977545, at *1 (5th Cir. Aug. 23, 2019), holding that the Texas Citizens...more

Kilpatrick

Fifth Circuit Rules Texas Anti-SLAPP Laws Do Not Apply In Federal Court

Kilpatrick on

On August 23, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued an opinion resolving “an issue that has brewed for several years in this circuit” regarding the intersection of Texas free speech protections and...more

Robins Kaplan LLP

The Second Circuit Eliminates Iqbal Hearings

Robins Kaplan LLP on

The Second Circuit has breathed new life into Sarah Palin’s case against the New York Times by rejecting the use of an unusual “Iqbal” hearing to determine the plausibility of her allegations....more

Tucker Arensberg, P.C.

Municipality’s Retaliation against Newspaper for Unfavorable Press Leads to Civil Rights Claim

Tucker Arensberg, P.C. on

Press and Journal, Inc. v. Borough of Middletown, Civil Action No. 1:18-CV-2064 (M.D. Pa. 2018) (Borough faces a civil rights claim for retaliation against newspaper for unfavorable press coverage). BACKGROUND - The...more

Proskauer - California Employment Law

LA Times Wins Lawsuit Against Former Freelancer

The California Court of Appeal affirmed dismissal of a former freelancer’s defamation and employment-related claims against the Times. Frederick Theodore Rall III, a political cartoonist and blogger for the paper, brought...more

Robinson+Cole RLUIPA Defense

Coffee Shop Church’s Claims Survive Motion to Dismiss, City Amends Code to Permit Use

A federal court in Maryland has denied the City of Laurel, Maryland’s (“City”) motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Redemption Community Church (“Church”). ...more

Ballard Spahr LLP

Nevada Court Rejects Defamation Claim Brought Against Associated Press by Casino Mogul

Ballard Spahr LLP on

In an opinion and order issued recently, a Nevada state court dismissed with prejudice a defamation claim brought by businessman Steve Wynn against the Associated Press (AP) and one of its reporters. ...more

Robinson+Cole RLUIPA Defense

Church Ministering To Homeless Secures Preliminary Injunction Against St. Paul, Minn. For Likely RLUIPA And Free Speech Violations

A federal court in Minnesota has issued a preliminary injunction in favor of a local church ministering to the homeless, ruling that the church was likely to prevail on its RLUIPA substantial burden and First Amendment free...more

Fox Rothschild LLP

The Anti-SLAPP Heard Round The World? The Broad Language Of The TCPA Has Lead To Unintended Consequences And Extreme Results.

Fox Rothschild LLP on

The Texas Citizens Participation Act (“TCPA”), enacted in 2011, is the Texas version of an Anti-SLAPP statute, which have been enacted by over 30 states around the country to protect free speech and the right of association...more

Ballard Spahr LLP

Second Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Sheldon Adelson’s SLAPP Suit Against National Jewish Democratic Council

Ballard Spahr LLP on

The Second Circuit has now affirmed dismissal of a defamation lawsuit brought by casino magnate and Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson against the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) and two members of its...more

Goulston & Storrs PC

Massachusetts Courts Issue Key Decisions Concerning Zoning and Anti-SLAPP Law

Goulston & Storrs PC on

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Makes it Harder to Dismiss Lawsuits by Utilizing the “Anti-SLAPP” Statute - In Blanchard v. Steward Carney Hospital, SJC-12141 (May 23, 2017) (Slip Op.) the Massachusetts Supreme...more

Robinson+Cole RLUIPA Defense

RLUIPA Defense/Rocky Mountain Sign Law Joint Blog Post: Pennsylvania Borough’s Church Directional Signs Did Not Violate the...

Late last month, a federal district court in Pennsylvania ruled that directional signs to a church, which contained images of a cross and bible, did not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The...more

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP

D.C. Circuit Rules Anti-SLAPP Law Inapplicable in Federal Court, Highlighting Need for Federal Anti-SLAPP Law

In April, the D.C. Circuit held that the District of Columbia anti-SLAPP statute does not apply in a federal court diversity case because “Federal Rules 12 and 56 answer the same question as the anti-SLAPP Act’s special...more

Gray Reed

Texas Anti-SLAPP Law: The Expanding Scope of the Texas Citizen’s Participation Act – Part 5 (the conclusion)

Gray Reed on

To conclude the series, we look at one more opinion — Serafine v. Blunt, No. 03-12-00726-CV, 2015 WL 2061922 (Tex. App.—Austin May 1, 2015). This case dealt with a property dispute, but the real interest comes from the...more

Gray Reed

Texas Anti-SLAPP Law: The Expanding Scope of the Texas Citizen’s Participation Act – Part 4 – A decision in Schlumberger, sort of

Gray Reed on

Since we published Part 3 that discussed the details of an interesting case here in Houston, Schlumberger v. Rutherford, the First Court of Appeals issued its opinion on Tuesday. The best description of the decision is a...more

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