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Government Movants For Anti-Slapp? Seriously? Seeking Needed Changes For Applying The California Anti-Slapp Law And The Government Speech Doctrine, Kevin R. Kemper

Kevin R Kemper

California courts have allowed governmental entities and employees to be movants under the anti-SLAPP law at California Civil Code of Procedure § 425.16. That means that those governmental entities and employees have been able to claim that government actions are protected acts of speech or petition under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The basic problem is that the First Amendment protects citizen speech and petition of citizens but not actions by government officials. This has been long established and recently affirmed in holdings by the U.S. Supreme Court. In June 2011, the Court in Nevada Commission on Ethics …