Missouri bill seeks to crack down on meritless lawsuits targeting free speech
State Sen. Mike Henderson stands as he is introduced to the Missouri Senate on the first day of the 2025 legislative session in January (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent).
Lawmakers are once again pushing for Missouri to join more than 30 other states that have enacted protections against frivolous litigation aimed at silencing free speech.
The proposal targets strategic lawsuits against public participation, or 'SLAPPs,' which are often filed without any expectation of winning in court and are instead simply an attempt to intimidate a person or organization by threatening a lengthy, expensive legal battle.
'These are lawsuits used to punish people with costly litigation to suppress free speech,' state Sen. Mike Henderson, a Desloge Republican sponsoring the legislation, told the Missouri Senate Judiciary Committee last week. 'Even if a defendant wins, the financial burden discourages them and others from exercising their free speech.'
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A coalition of groups testified in support of the bill, including Missouri Right to Life and the Missouri Press Association. There was no opposition during the Senate hearing.
'News organizations and journalists across the country are frequent targets of these meritless lawsuits that aim to silence reporting through expensive and protracted litigation,' said Chad Stebbins, executive director of the Missouri Press Association. 'Missouri's current statutes only protect conduct or speech undertaken or made in connection with a public hearing or public meeting.'
The bill would require plaintiffs in these lawsuits to demonstrate a basis for their claim early in the litigation A judge would then have to rule in an expedited manner on whether the case should be dismissed, easing any expense to the defendant and avoiding a drawn out process.
Businesses and politicians are increasingly using legal intimidation to stifle journalism and dissenting voices.
Elon Musk's social media company X filed multiple lawsuits against liberal advocacy group Media Matters for America in 2023 over reports by the nonprofit organization that led to an advertising boycott. Media Matters was forced to lay off dozens of staffers because of the lawsuits.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has reportedly spent more than $500,000 defending himself in a defamation lawsuit over how a book he recently wrote described debunked claims of election fraud made in the video presentation to state legislators. The suit was filed by the wife of a Texas multimillionaire and ardent support of Donald Trump.
In 2023, a professor at University of Notre Dame filed a defamation lawsuit against a student-run, conservative Catholic newspaper after it published a news story about her abortion-rights activism. Because of Indiana's anti-SLAPP law, the case was dismissed but the paper still spent $175,000 defending itself.
Citizens exercising their free speech rights should not have to endure the toll of litigation and the risk of financial ruin to defend themselves against meritless claims, said Susan Klein of Missouri Right to Life.
'Obviously we have freedom of speech, but sometimes people or organizations are intimidated by the threat of a lawsuit and are encouraged to not speak out,' she said. 'And so because of this harassment and intimidation, we need to have some added protection for our freedom of speech.'
The Missouri anti-SLAPP legislation has had success in both the House and Senate in previous years, but has never made it to the governor's desk. Last year, it was included in a wide-ranging judicial bill that cleared the House but ran into gridlock in the Senate, where GOP infighting resulted in fewer bills passing than any year in living memory.
'This has been around since 2021,' state Sen. Nick Schroer, a Republican from Defiance and chair of the judiciary committee, told Henderson during last week's hearing. 'You've got my full support.'
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