It's Time to Stop SLAPPs!

SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) are a popular tool among corporations to fight activists and unions who organize to protests against company policies, products or actions.

We've seen companies sue civil rights protestors, environmental activists, union members and others for actions as simple as testifying at hearings, organizing petition drives, or staging protests. (see some examples below)

We have to stop this threat to our First Amendment right to protest and speak truth to power! Ask your Representative to sign on as a co-sponsor to the Citizen Participation Act of 2009!

Here are some sample SLAPPs [Find more examples, and more information about SLAPPs at the Federal Anti-SLAPP Project]:

NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co., 458 U.S. 886 (1982)

• In this landmark civil rights case, a local branch of the NAACP instituted an economic boycott against white merchants in Claiborne County, Mississippi to pressure elected officials to adopt several racial justice measures. In response, the merchants sued the NAACP for tortious interference with business. The court found for the merchants and ordered the NAACP to pay $3.5 million in damages, a verdict the Mississippi Supreme Court upheld. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the verdict, holding that “the boycott clearly involved constitutionally protected activity” through which the NAACP “sought to bring about political, social, and economic change.”

Smithfield Foods, Inc. v. United Food Commercial Workers

• In 2007, Smithfield foods filed a federal lawsuit against the United Food and Commercial workers, claiming that the union orchestrated a public smear campaign to hurt Smithfield's business as a method of extorting the company and alleging $5 million in damages.

Morton Grove Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. The National Pediculosis Association, N.D. Ill. No. 08-C-1384 (2008)

In 2006, the Ecology Center and other environmental organizations launched a campaign to urge the Michigan Legislature to restrict the use of pharmaceutical lindane. Morton Grove Pharmaceuticals filed suit in July 2006, charging the Ecology Center and two members of the Michigan Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics with defamation, tortious interference, trade disparagement, and deceptive trade practices, and alleging more than $9.3 million in damages.