{"id":13639,"date":"2023-03-31T11:52:43","date_gmt":"2023-03-31T15:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/?p=13639"},"modified":"2025-02-06T14:46:06","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T19:46:06","slug":"alliance-weighs-in-on-texas-bills-threatening-anti-slapp-protections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/alliance-weighs-in-on-texas-bills-threatening-anti-slapp-protections\/","title":{"rendered":"Alliance Weighs in on Texas Bills Threatening Anti-SLAPP Protections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/share.listnr.tech\/embed\/voiceover\/6427024a8b850800251a1fef\/?minimal=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"165\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>On March 28, the Alliance sent a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/NMA-letter-re-HB-2781_March-28.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #0082c0;\">letter<\/span><\/a> to Texas Representative and House Judiciary Chairman Jeff Leach expressing concerns over House Bill <a href=\"https:\/\/capitol.texas.gov\/BillLookup\/History.aspx?LegSess=88R&amp;Bill=HB2781\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #0082c0;\">2781<\/span><\/a>. As currently drafted, HB 2781 would threaten the vital free speech protections encompassed in Texas\u2019s anti-SLAPP statute, the Texas Citizens Participation Act (\u201cTCPA\u201d). The bill would eliminate the automatic stay of proceedings when a motion to dismiss under the TCPA is found to be frivolous, untimely, or subject to a statutory exemption. This would result in unnecessary and wasteful litigation if an appellate court subsequently reversed the denial of the motion to dismiss, rendering the trial court activity in the interim futile. HB 2781 would essentially force parties to litigate the same anti-SLAPP case and motion in two courts, <em>simultaneously<\/em>, which is an afront to judicial economy.<\/p>\n<p>On March 30, the Alliance also joined the Reporters Committee\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rcfp.org\/briefs-comments\/texas-anti-slapp-hb2781-sb896\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #0082c0;\">letter<\/span><\/a>, along with a coalition of groups, expressing similar concerns over HB 2781 as well as the companion bill, Senate Bill <a href=\"https:\/\/capitol.texas.gov\/BillLookup\/History.aspx?LegSess=88R&amp;Bill=SB896\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #0082c0;\">896<\/span><\/a>. The Alliance supports safeguarding anti-SLAPP laws that provide critical protections to journalists and news publishers against meritless lawsuits.<\/p>\n<p>The Alliance\u2019s letter can be viewed in full <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/NMA-letter-re-HB-2781_March-28.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #0082c0;\">here.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Alliance supports safeguarding anti-SLAPP laws that provide critical protections to journalists and news publishers against meritless lawsuits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":13261,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,206],"tags":[716],"class_list":["post-13639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advocacy","category-free-press","tag-tag-two"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsmediaalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}