GOP bill aiming to protect free speech rights from frivolous lawsuits advances

As the Wisconsin State Legislature is scheduled to close for campaign season, the Assembly passed a Republican bill targeting lawsuits that try to stifle free speech. The Senate must now act for it to become law.

By Annie Pulley, THE BADGER PROJECT

In the waning days of the state’s legislative session, GOP lawmakers advanced a bill that would discourage frivolous lawsuits that punish people for exercising their free speech rights. 

The Republican bill passed the state Assembly Feb. 17. The soon-to-retire Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) halted business in his chamber Feb. 20. The state Senate is still in Madison, but the clock is ticking: soon most lawmakers will go home to work on their reelection campaigns. 

The bill “strengthens protections for free speech and civic participation,” state Rep. Jim Piwowarczyk (R-Hubertus), the bill’s author and founder of the conservative news website WisconsinRight, wrote in a press release. “The bill ensures a timely court hearing, pauses expensive discovery while the motion is under consideration, and allows those who prevail to recover their attorney fees. Together, these provisions help protect people from being burdened by drawn-out, costly lawsuits that can discourage them from speaking out.”

This is the Legislature’s latest attempt to have Wisconsin join more than a dozen other states that have targeted SLAPPs — strategic lawsuits against public participation — by adopting the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act. 

The Uniform Law Commission, responsible for the act, says a SLAPP can masquerade as a defamation, invasion of privacy or a nuisance lawsuit. But “its real purpose is to silence and intimidate the defendant from engaging in constitutionally protected activities, such as free speech,” the commission says. 

“It’s been disappointing to learn that the Republican majority in the Legislature would rather rewrite bills with their own names on them than simply advance strong bills written by Democrats. Still, passing legislation that expands protection for free press and free speech, no matter who takes credit, is a step in the right direction. And if Republicans need their own names on the bill to feel secure enough to support it, so be it.”

State Rep. Christian Phelps (D-Eau Claire)

The bill protects people sued for communicating in a government proceeding; communicating about an issue that is the topic of a government proceeding; or for exercising “the constitutional right of freedom of speech or of the press, the right to assemble or petition, or the right of association, on a matter of public concern,” according to the official summary of the bill. 

If the individual or organization successfully shows it is the victim of a SLAPP, it won’t be responsible for paying the legal fees.

The Wausau Pilot & Review, an online news organization, twice defeated a phony defamation accusation against it from state Sen. Cory Tomczyk. Even still, the online news organization had to rack up nearly $200,000 in legal bills to defend against it. At a Marathon County Board meeting, Tomczyk was heard by several people using a homophobic slur, which the Pilot then noted in a story. Three people signed sworn affidavits saying they heard him say it. Still, Tomczyk pressed forward with his lawsuit, then appealed when he lost the first time.

The Pilot was able to raise more than $140,000 in an online fundraising campaign after a story on the lawsuit ran in the New York Times, but “the continuing fallout has been significant,” said Shereen Siewert, the news organization’s founder and editor.

“Public perception of us has shifted from being nonpartisan to being a ‘liberal’ publication because we were sued by a prominent member of the GOP,” she continued.

That has caused some advertisers and many donors to back away.

“I just still can’t believe all of this happened,” she said.

Under the new bill, it might not be able to.

The Republican proposal rhymes with a bill introduced by Democrats that has been stuck in an Assembly committee since it was introduced last September. Democrats also proposed an anti-SLAPP bill in 2023.

“It’s been disappointing to learn that the Republican majority in the Legislature would rather rewrite bills with their own names on them than simply advance strong bills written by Democrats,” state Rep. Christian Phelps, who introduced the September anti-SLAPP bill, said in a statement to The Badger Project. “Still, passing legislation that expands protection for free press and free speech, no matter who takes credit, is a step in the right direction. And if Republicans need their own names on the bill to feel secure enough to support it, so be it.” 

The bill, which is now sitting in a committee in the Senate, still has to get the approval of that body and secure the governor’s signature. The Senate is scheduled to wrap up its legislative session this month.

The Badger Project is a nonpartisan, citizen-supported journalism nonprofit in Wisconsin.