Iowa lawmakers try again to pass anti-SLAPP bill expediting First Amendment cases
Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, said Tuesday he has high hopes for the Iowa Legislature to pass an anti-SLAPP bill this session after several years of the measure stalling.
SLAPP, or 'strategic lawsuits against public participation,' is a term used for civil lawsuits filed to intimidate a person or news organization from speaking publicly about certain issues. The individuals or organizations bringing these suits do not necessarily think they can win in court, but aim to stop reporting or public speech on a subject by threatening a drawn-out, expensive legal battle.
House Study Bill 116 is this year's run at passing anti-SLAPP legislation in Iowa — one of 15 states that does not have a state measure protecting against these lawsuits. The bill has been passed by the House in previous sessions, but has yet to clear the Senate.
But this year, Holt said he believes the bill has 'outstanding chance this year to advance to the Senate.' The Senate Judiciary Committee passed Senate File 47, the companion bill to the House measure, earlier Tuesday.
'I think this year we're going to get it done,' Holt said.
Holt said his interest in passing anti-SLAPP legislation began in 2018 when a Carroll police officer sued the Carroll Times Herald for libel after the paper reported he was having sexual relationships with teenagers, an act he admitted to. The court case cost the paper over $100,000 and took more than a year to conclude.
The legislation, Holt said, would help prevent these situations by allowing for an expedited relief in court on actions that involve freedom of speech and of the press, as well as the rights to assemble, petition and of association.
'What this legislation allows is a sort of an expedited judgment up front, if the lawsuit is that way, is trying and attempting to silence speech,' Holt said. 'Obviously, if there's slander something there, the judge would determine, 'no, it doesn't fit,' it would move forward. But it does allow that expedited relief and also reasonable attorney fees to the individual who's targeted.'
David Walker, a member of the Uniform Law Commission of Iowa, said the legislation is an important step toward protecting constitutional rights of Iowans.
'This is bipartisan legislation — really crucial to our democracy, in protecting public expression against the kind of intimidation that is real, and that has effect without the protection of this act,' Walker said. '… I would say that it broadly protects all First Amendment rights which are replicated at the Iowa Constitution.'
Several speakers supported the bill on behalf of news organizations, saying the measure will help prevent the judiciary from being used to restrict First Amendment rights. The bill was also supported by multiple speakers who said they had faced threats of legal action for their comments about the construction of Summit Carbon Solutions' proposed pipeline.
Rep. Megan Srinivas, D-Des Moines, said though she has not been working on the legislation as long as Holt, she has 'very vehemently' supported the measure for the past two years.
'I'm eager to do so again, for all of the reasons that each of you have stated, from trying to protect just our constitutional rights to freedom of speech — the very basics of what we should all be standing upon — and the good work that so many in the newspaper industry and journalism industry have done for our state,' Srinivas said.
The House bill is now available for consideration by the House Judiciary Committee. The Senate measure will be available for floor debate after being placed on the calendar.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
California Republicans accuse Newsom of 'sinister redistricting scheme' after Trump mockery
After California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he would move forward with a state redistricting plan – replete with implied mockery of President Donald Trump – California Republicans responded late Thursday. Newsom had declared "liberation day" – an apparent reference to Trump's own moniker for the day he introduced a comprehensive tariff regime – and preceded the announcement with "ALL CAPS" social media posts meant to mock the president's penchant for doing the same on Truth Social. California Republicans were not amused and pushed back on the project that could put an end to their already muted federal representation in America's most populous state. "Californians demand and deserve transparency from their government. Governor Newsom's sinister redistricting scheme is the opposite," the top Republican on the state's Elections Committee said. California's Top Republican Rips Dems Blocking 'Oil Goldmine' After New Trump Project Rebuffs Schiff "There is no public input," lamented state Assemblywoman Alexandra Macedo, R-Tulare, as the state hosts nine Republican federal House lawmakers of the 52 total. The state's last Republican senator was Sen. John Seymour in 1991 – who had been appointed for a brief stint after Sen. Pete Wilson resigned to take the governor's office. Read On The Fox News App Macedo suggested Newsom would go to great lengths just to grab national headlines, no matter what the "will of the voters" is in reality. "Governor Newsom is on a mission to take power away from the California Citizens Redistricting Commission," Macedo said of the panel that typically would help decide decennial mapping. "Governor Newsom's power-grab erodes public trust in our government. Undermining the commission's hard work … is shortsighted and insulting to voters," said Macedo, whose caucus holds 19 of the 60 assembly seats. Mamdani Studies 'America's Worst Mayor' Brandon Johnson To Avoid His Political Pitfalls: Report Newsom, however, defended his decision, saying that Trump "poked the bear" – the animal which also appears on the Golden State's flag – and that California will therefore push back. "DONALD 'TACO' TRUMP, AS MANY CALL HIM, 'MISSED' THE DEADLINE!!! CALIFORNIA WILL NOW DRAW NEW, MORE 'BEAUTIFUL MAPS,' THEY WILL BE HISTORIC AS THEY WILL END THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY (DEMS TAKE BACK THE HOUSE!)," Newsom wrote in his Trump-esque post. Trump has supported a "simple redrawing" of the Texas congressional map to represent the state's Republican bent, he said. "We have an opportunity in Texas to pick up five seats. We have a really good governor, and we have good people in Texas. And I won Texas, I got the highest vote in the history of Texas as you probably know. And we are entitled to five more seats," Trump recently said. Sen. Brian Jones, R-San Diego, leader of the upper chamber's minority in Sacramento, directed Fox News Digital to recent comments prior to the official announcement by Newsom. "Californians didn't elect Newsom to play gerrymandering games to boost his presidential campaign, they elected him to solve problems here at home," said Jones, who leads 10 senators compared to the Democrats' 30. "What he's doing now undermines the independent redistricting commission that voters created to stop exactly this kind of political manipulation." He also ripped Democrats after hearing that California Secretary of State Shirley Weber told reporters the legislature would have only a short window to schedule a special election for redistricting to coincide with the November elections. California lawmakers are on summer recess until Monday. The process would have to finish by next Friday; five days. "Once again, Newsom convinced Senate and Assembly Democrats to roll over, ignore voters, rush sham hearings, and violate the California Constitution," Jones said. "Democracy is dead in California, killed by Newsom's corrupt pursuit of the presidency." Fox News Digital's Paul Steinhauser contributed to this article source: California Republicans accuse Newsom of 'sinister redistricting scheme' after Trump mockery
New York Post
3 hours ago
- New York Post
Mayor Eric Adams deserves credit for his stunning housing wins
It's odd how little credit Mayor Eric Adams gets for his relentless, steady and successful drive to get more housing, including more affordable homes, built in New York City. In under four years, he's arguably done more than his predecessors achieved in the previous two decades, winning changes that will make a huge difference in the long term rather than offering empty promises of instant miracles. The latest: The City Council just OK'd Adams' plan to rezone Midtown South, opening the door for nearly 10,000 new housing units, 2,800 of them affordable, in an area that was largely zoned for (outdated) industrial uses. Advertisement Some of those units will come from converting commercial space to residential, an obvious next step for older, vacant office buildings. All told, Adams' rezoning push starting in 2021 has cleared the way for 100,000 new units to be built across the city, with 30,000 more on the way if the City Council approves his plans for Jamaica and Long Island City. Advertisement That's more housing gained via zoning changes than added in the Bloomberg and de Blasio years combined. Another unheralded gain, from years of steady effort and deft alliances: getting the Legislature to lift the floor-area-ratio cap of 12, which arbitrarily restricted the height of residential buildings. Between the mayor's massive City of Yes package, which the council approved last year, and other efforts, including the preservation of about 134,700 existing units, City Hall counts the number of units added to or kept in the Big Apple's housing supply under Adams at about 426,000. Yes, that includes the totals from proposals that still need to go through the approval process — and a good chunk, like those enabled through rezoning, won't be fully realized for years. Advertisement It doesn't help when lefty ideologues sabotage projects like the Brooklyn Marine Terminal, which would offer 6,000 new units, because they'd rather have no new housing than let any market-rate apartments get built on public land. But the mayor's full-court press means he's already changed the city's long-term housing landscape for the better even if some plans fall through — and he could do even more in a second term. We know: 'Methodical' doesn't match the Adams' image, but perhaps that's because so little of the local media pays attention to day-in-day-out reality; it's so much easier to fawn over, say, Zohran Mamdani's flashy promises to freeze rents. Advertisement Even though the mayor's strategy, unlike Mamdani's, works. Freezing rent on rent-regulated apartments would force more landlords to abandon their buildings altogether or allow units to fall into disrepair, making the city's housing situation worse. Meanwhile, Adams is dramatically boosting supply, which will organically push rents lower over time. In a city where hysterically anti-development progressives constantly do their best to thwart common-sense housing fixes, Adams' success in ushering in lasting change is stunning. And though the fruits of his labor will take time to fully appear, generations of New Yorkers will benefit. As the mayoral race exits the summer 'silly season,' perhaps voters will start to realize who's actually delivering the housing solutions New York needs.
The Hill
3 hours ago
- The Hill
Texas state senators take first step toward redistricting
State senators in Texas launched a public hearing Sunday on a bill to redraw congressional voting districts in the state, a move that could win Republicans five more seats in the House if the GOP plan works perfectly. The public hearing is a required step before a bill can advance for a vote on the state Senate floor, Nexstar's KXAN reported. Democrats fled the state earlier this summer to prevent Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Republicans from having the legislative quorum necessary to pass legislation. But Democrats are expected to attend the new special session after garnering attention with their walkout, and triggering more redistricting efforts around the country. 'We did exactly what we said we needed to do, and that is bringing a spotlight on this issue,' State Rep. Josey Garcia (D-San Antonio) said in an interview with KXAN one day before Abbott called the second special session. Most notably, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is spearheading an effort to change district lines in his state to make up for any potential losses for Democrats in Texas. Democrats released their proposed map on Friday evening. Newsom (D) is vying to hold a special election this fall on a ballot measure that would suspend the state's independent redistricting commission until the end of the decade in an effort to keep up with Republican gerrymandering. Newsom has stressed that bypassing the commission, which Californians approved back in 2008 and 2010, would be temporary, and that redrawing the lines would only be triggered by redistricting in red states. 'They do five seats, we do five seats,' Newsom has said. KXAN reported that Texas House leaders expect that the House will have enough members present Monday to conduct legislative business. GOP State Sen. Phil King told KXAN that the new mapy would be legal and will perform better for Republicans in the state. 'We heard a lot of testimony that the current map had a number of districts that were not compact, were not close together, were not tight, in in their in their design, and in this map, listening to that testimony, we applied it, and this map also is much more compact than the current congressional redistricting map.' The proposed changes target five districts in areas around Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, creating Republican-leaning seats. The Texas push was directed by President Trump, who has also been pushing other states where Republicans are in control of government to look at redistricting to gain Republicans seats. The states considering such options include Missouri and Indiana. Trump was impeached twice in his first term after Democrats regained control of the House. Because the GOP has a very narrow majority in the House and the president's party typically loses seats in the midterm elections, the possibility of Democrats regaining the House majority is a real possibility in 2026.
