Many Mountain West states have doubled down on free speech protections in recent years. Wyoming could soon join them.
A house bill protects against SLAPPs, or strategic lawsuits against public participation. According to state Rep. Pepper Ottman (R-Riverton), the goal of these suits are to impose enough legal costs and stress on someone until they stop speaking.
“A rancher who testifies against a proposed industrial operation, a small newspaper that covers local government, a citizen who speaks out at a public meeting — all are vulnerable to SLAPPs under current Wyoming law,” Ottman said at a Feb. 16 committee meeting.
So, Ottman is sponsoring the Wyoming First Amendment Protection Act, which would allow meritless lawsuits like this to be dismissed early on.
In a time when there are deep divisions even among members of Wyoming’s Republican majority, this piece of legislation has gained broad political support. Rep. Mike Yin (D-Jackson) voted in favor.
“No one should be able to use the court as a weapon rather than actually trying to achieve justice,” Yin told the Mountain West News Bureau.
He said the bill isn’t perfect, but it’s better than nothing. It has passed the state House and is now headed to the Senate.
Wyoming is one of 11 states nationwide without an anti-SLAPP law, according to the Institute for Free Speech, but that number is quickly decreasing. Montana and Idaho passed similar laws last year. Colorado and Utah did so in the years before that, as did Nevada in the 1990s.
Arizona and New Mexico also have anti-SLAPP laws, but the free speech organization says they aren’t effective enough. Arizona’s law requires speakers to prove the lawsuit was “substantially motivated” by a “desire” to abridge speech, while New Mexico’s only protects speakers at government meetings.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio, KJZZ in Arizona and NPR, with additional support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
