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DES MOINES — Iowans would be able to request the rapid dismissal of a lawsuit on free speech grounds — which would bring Iowa into line with a majority of U.S. states — under a proposal being considered by state lawmakers.
The legislation, which advanced Tuesday in both chambers of the Iowa Legislature, is a so-called anti-SLAPP bill, an acronym for strategic lawsuits against public participation. In other words, the measure is designed to provide legal relief for individuals to push back against lawsuits that are designed to squelch free speech.
Under the proposal, Iowans who face a lawsuit over something they said in public debate or in exercising their free speech can within 60 days ask a judge to dismiss the lawsuit. Iowa is one of just 15 U.S. states without an anti-SLAPP law, according to the nonprofit Institute for Free Speech. Ohio last month became the 35th state to pass an anti-SLAPP law.
Multiple events in Iowa have drawn legislators’ interest to adding an anti-SLAPP law in Iowa.
In 2017, a former police officer sued the Carroll Times Herald newspaper after it reported on the officer’s sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl. A year later, a judge ruled in favor of the newspaper. However, in 2019 the paper’s leadership announced it still was fundraising to help pay legal costs.
More recently, some landowners and critics of a proposed carbon dioxide capture pipeline have been sent letters by the Iowa company hoping to build it, threatening them with legal action over things they have said in public about the project.
At least six Iowans, including former Western Iowa U.S. Rep. Steve King and activist Jess Mazour, with the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter, have received a letter from Summit Carbon Solutions demanding they stop making false statements about the pipeline projects and threatening them with legal action.
The proposed anti-SLAPP law would allow individuals in lawsuits similar to those to ask a judge for an expedited dismissal.
“So what this legislation allows is sort of an expedited judgment up front if the lawsuit is that way, if it is targeting and attempting to silence speech,” Rep. Steve Holt, R-Denison, said.
House Study Bill 116, the bill restarted for this year’s legislative session, was approved Tuesday by a three-member House subcommittee panel that included Holt. The public speakers, all of whom supported the bill, represented landowners opposed to CO2 pipelines, state journalism organizations and the ACLU of Iowa.
That bill is now eligible for consideration by the full House Judiciary Committee.
Previous anti-SLAPP proposals have passed the full Iowa House in at least two legislative sessions, Holt said. But the proposal has not garnered sufficient support to pass the Iowa Senate. Both chambers have Republican majorities.
Based on conversations he has had with Senate Republicans, Holt said he believes this year there is more support in the chamber and this could be the year the bill passes the Legislature and is sent to Gov. Kim Reynolds for her consideration.
“I think there’s a really good opportunity this year for it to advance in the Senate,” Holt said after Tuesday’s subcommittee hearing.
A similar bill passed Tuesday out of the Iowa Senate’s Judiciary Committee. That makes Senate File 47 eligible for debate in the full Iowa Senate.
“We have not gotten it out of committee due to some opposition that won the day each year. This year we decided, as (Republicans on the committee), it is time to move it,” Sen. Jason Schultz, a Republican from Schleswig who chairs the Senate’s Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday. “We have 35 states that have put this in their code. … It’s a standard best practice. We think it’s time to go ahead and move the bill. And at the very least it is time for the full (Senate Republican) caucus to weigh in on it.”
Schultz said he supports the proposal.
“I like it. I support it and I hope we get it done,” he said.
Mazour was among those who gave public testimony at Tuesday’s House subcommittee hearing. She brought with her the letter addressed to her from lawyers representing Summit Carbon Solutions.
“I think this is ridiculous, because what I’ve been doing for the last four years is trying to help, holding meetings to make sure Iowans know their rights, learning as much as I can about this project so that people in this state can know how to protect themselves, or what the truth is about this project,” Mazour said. “None of that should be punished. And I shouldn’t have to be worried about going broke, because I’m doing what I am granted under the U.S. Constitution, which is my First Amendment rights.”
Jared Strong of The Gazette contributed to this report.
Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com
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