Governor Brad Little has signed SB 1001 into law, which helps protect Idahahoans from frivolous lawsuits meant to silence you from exercising your 1st Amendment rights.
The bill was sponsored by Sen. Brian Lenney (R – Nampa) and should have passed last year, but it stalled and failed to clear the Senate. This year, the only lawmaker to vote against the legislation from either chamber was Sen. Kelly Anthon (R – Rupert).
Idaho now joins a list of other states with anti-SLAPP laws. SLAPP stands for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. These types of lawsuits are often filed to stop critics from speaking out against them.
Why does this matter to gun owners?
From the first-hand experience of someone suing me because they didn’t like what I had to write, I can tell you that spending years fighting off a frivolous lawsuit designed to shut me up is both annoying and costly. No gun owner should be silenced from exercising their 1st Amendment rights like someone tried to do to me.
Lawfare is increasingly rising in the United States, and Idaho is not immune to that lawfare.
Anti-SLAPP laws are designed to put the entire case before a judge early on to decide whether there is any real merit to it. If not, the case can be thrown out right away, much earlier in the process.
We are excited to see this law implemented and hope that it will make individuals who continue to threaten lawsuits think twice about whether or not they have a case or want to continue to threaten lawsuits over articles or mean tweets.
One reply on “How Gov. Little Signing Anti-SLAPP Bill Protects Gun Owners 1A Rights”
Cool