Just weeks into my rookie term, a group of neighbors met me in my office to discuss their harrowing experiences of being sued. They had not harassed, discriminated against, injured, or stolen anything from anyone. They had simply exercised their First Amendment right to free speech when, as members of a community group, they spoke out against a corporation’s actions. As they saw it, the lawsuits were meant to bully them into submission.

SLAPP stands for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. They are not sound lawsuits. They are not valid actions intending to provide fair restitution to wronged parties. They are not like the defamation lawsuit that Dominion Voting Systems filed against Fox News. In that case, Dominion alleged that Fox News frequently promoted lies and false conspiracy theories about the electronic voting company’s machines in the 2020 election which Dominion officials claimed significantly damaged their business. (Fox News paid Dominion nearly $800 million to settle that suit.)

SLAPP cases, rather, are garbage frivolous lawsuits meant to intimidate and silence. Donald Trump, for example, launched a SLAPP case against The New York Times after they published a factual story about the former President’s fraudulent business practices. New York has strong laws in place against bad actors, and their anti-SLAPP law was used by the judge to dismiss the case. That law was also used to order Donald Trump to pay over $400,000 to the New York Times in restitution for his fraudulent suit. Unlike New York, Pennsylvania was one of over a dozen states that had no SLAPP case protections. In fact, our commonwealth received a “D-” for its ability to protect consumers and groups from frivolous lawsuits filed by greedy corporations and other bad actors. 

Working with these local advocates, I gathered several of my colleagues, including some who had worked on similar efforts in previous sessions, and introduced a strong anti-SLAPP bill. Our proposed legislation had a provision for judges to quickly dismiss SLAPP cases. Like the New York bill did with Trump, our bill included a provision for wronged parties to “SLAPP back” and recoup damages. My colleague, State Rep. Ryan Bizzaro, was the lead co-prime bill sponsor and his office helped us to push this bill forward. We passed our bill through the State House unanimously on Oct. 5, 2023, and it passed the Senate on July 9, 2024. And on July 17, Gov. Shapiro signed our bill, now Act No. 72 of 2024, into law.

We have miles to go to make our commonwealth fairer, but I believe that Pennsylvania’s new law is significant progress. When they came to my office, those neighbors believed that Pennsylvania could be made a fairer place to live — where people were prioritized over greedy corporations and bad actors. Our law also shows what can happen when neighbors and legislators focus on the possible and work together to improve our commonwealth.

More to come! 

Rep. Tarik Khan represents the 194th District which includes Manayunk, Roxborough, parts of Chestnut Hill, and East Falls.