The Environment and the Citizen Participation Act (H.R. 4364)
The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it.
- John Stuart Mill
Meritless lawsuits against those who speak out on the environment – opposing development, questioning compliance with environmental regulations, or raising issues of pollution, toxicity and safety - are the quintessential SLAPPs. In fact, Professor George Pring, who with Penelope Canan coined the term SLAPP, began researching the phenomenon of using the courts as a weapon after his clients were hit with a lawsuit arising from their environmental advocacy. SLAPPs against environmental advocacy groups are so common they are often nicknamed Eco-SLAPPs.
Eco-SLAPPs
Sand Livestock Sys. v. Svoboda 756 N.W.2d 299 (2008).
In 2000, hog producer Furnas County Farms in Nebraska sued two local farmers for filing written comments about Furnas' environmental record with state regulators. The farmers countersued, and in 2005, a jury rejected Furnas' claims and ordered it to pay $900,000 in damages plus legal fees. The appeals court overturned the award, saying a judge, not a jury, needed to determine whether the lawsuit had any basis. The case finally settled eight years after starting, in November 2008. See article about Sand Livestock Sys. v. Svoboda 756 N.W.2d 299 (2008).
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. After two years of litigation, the case settled, with no money changing hands, in 2008. See article about Morton Grove Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. The National Pediculosis Association, N.D. Ill. No. 08-C-1384 (2008).
Tosco v. Communities for Better Environments, 236 F.3d 495 (2001).
In 1999, the oil refinery Tosco sued Communities for Better Environments, claiming that CBE had libeled and slandered Tosco in the course of Clean Air Act lawsuits CBE had brought against Tosco. Tosco brought its suit in federal court rather than state court, seemingly in an attempt to avoid the California anti-SLAPP law. The tactic did not work; although it did not reach the merits, the federal court dismissed the Tosco suit for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
The Citizen Participation Act protects environmental advocates by:
1. Creating immunity for petition activity – that activity undertaken to affect a favorable government outcome;
2. Explicitly protecting non-petition speech and conduct related to environmental well-being;
3. Creating a procedure so that SLAPP filers cannot circumvent existing state anti-SLAPP protections by “forum shopping” for a court in a jurisdiction without protections;
4. Providing a procedure for the quick dismissal of SLAPPs, and limiting or prohibiting discovery (the expensive process during which parties seek documents and testimony from one another and third parties);
5. Allowing a SLAPP target to recoup attorney’s fees and costs incurred in litigating the SLAPP.
Please note: Some of the information and commentary contained in this listing are based on court filings and other informational sources that may contain unproven allegations made by the parties. The truthfulness and accuracy of such information may be in dispute.