On the thirteenth day of the 2021 Regular Session of the General Assembly, Rep. Josie Raymond (D-Louisville) tweeted, "Zero Democratic bills have been referred to House committees."
HB 132, "An act relating to legal actions concerning the exercise of a person's constitutional rights," is among the bills that awaits referral to a House committee.
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/21rs/HB132.html
Rep. Nima Kulkarni (D-Louisville) prefiled the bill in mid-December. No action has been taken on the bill since January 5 when it was sent to the House Committee on Committees.
It is a bill in which the Kentucky Open Government Coalition has a particular interest as a consequence of recent lawsuits filed by public agencies against open records requesters — one in Kentucky and another in Louisiana.
Kulkarni's bill — which is co-sponsored by Rep. Jason Nemes (R-Louisville) — would establish an Anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation or SLAPP suit) law in Kentucky.
Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP suits) are baseless, costly lawsuits designed to intimidate and silence journalists and members of the public who legitimately exercise the right to engage in truthful speech, lawful petitioning, and legal association.
Like the Anti-SLAPP laws already enacted in 32 states, HB 132 is aimed at deterring these meritless lawsuits by establishing procedures for expeditiously dismissing SLAPP lawsuits and providing for the award of costs to the party moving to dismiss the frivolous suit if dismissal is granted.
HB 132 is based on the recently adopted Uniform Public Expression Protection Act.
https://www.uniformlaws.org/committees/community-home?CommunityKey=4f48…
In late January, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry sued a reporter for The Advocate and The Times-Picayune — Andrea Gallo — based on a public-records request she filed. Landry is asking a judge to issue a declaratory judgment denying Gallo's request and seal the proceedings.
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/courts/article_2bde1d4a-68…
It's a sordid tale — now widely known — that Landry hoped to sweep under the carpet. His strong arm tactics — aimed at intimidating a reporter who filed an open records request to uncover the facts relating to Landry's recently disciplined criminal division director — clearly misfired.
So did the ham fisted tactics employed by the City of Taylorsville when, in 2017, official tried to silence an outspoken local critic and lightning rod of public opinion — Lawrence Trageser. The city filed a lawsuit against Trageser — seeking compensatory and punitive damages — based on an open records dispute and Trageser's publication of records he obtained through open records requests and by other means.
The Spencer Circuit Court and the Kentucky Court of Appeals admonished the city in strongly worded opinions, unequivocally condemning the its baseless claims and declaring that "the government can use the ORA as a shield; it cannot use it as a sword."
https://law.justia.com/cases/kentucky/court-of-appeals/2020/2019-ca-000…
But 1238 days elapsed before the case was finally resolved in Trageser's favor at a cost to the public in judicial resources as well as penalties, costs and attorneys fees totaling $54,000.
https://www.facebook.com/419650175248377/posts/742593626287362/?d=n
https://www.facebook.com/419650175248377/posts/742978426248882/?d=n
A swift conclusion to this SLAPP suit would have benefited all. A swift conclusion would have been more easily secure by a Kentucky Anti-SLAPP law.
Louisiana's current Anti-SLAPP bill may bring a swift conclusion to Attorney General Landry's legal action against reporter Andrea Gallo.
Kulkarni's Anti-SLAPP bill merits consideration and — in our view — passage. Referral to a House committee is the first step.
