Re:Ask HN: Politics Blog Cloudflare Subpoena
by semiquaver on Sunday January 05, 2025 @08:56PM
(#42606775)
I was with you until the last paragraph. How do SLAPP laws intimidate people into silence? Their purpose is to combat the use of legal means to silence speech, so it seems the opposite is true.
Further, if SLAPP laws did burden speech, then that would be a first amendment issue since they are enacted by states which are bound by it.
> there is no free speech argument
You really mean there is no first amendment argument. There is still an abstract free speech argument.
Another example: SLAPP laws that effectively intimidate people into silence are a free speech issue but not a first amendment issue.