Every year thousands of people are sued in the USA for speaking out against governments and corporations. Some examples:

• In 1986 a woman in Texas was sued by a company, Hill Sand Co., for $5 million for using the term 'dump' for a landfill and her husband, who had not been involved in the protest, was sued because he "failed to control his wife". After nearly three years of court appearances and thousands of dollars in legal fees, during which time many people withdrew from the campaign in fear, the law suit was dropped. Hill Sand closed down and a couple of years later the landfill was investigated by the Environmental Protection Agency as a hazardous waste site that needed to be cleaned up.

• In Missouri a high school teacher, in a letter to the editor, urged her local community to attend hearings being held by the state environmental agency on a medical waste incinerator and to testify against approval being granted. The Canadian incinerator company suited her for $500,000 for libel.

• Betty Jane Blake opposed a developer, Terra Homes Inc, that wanted to cut down some trees in her street. She put up signs saying "This neighbourhood will not be Terraized" and tied red ribbons around the tree trunks. She was hit with a $6.6 million dollar law suit for defamation, interference in business and trespassing. The company also sued all the residents who attended a meeting at the Town Hall to discuss the development. The company eventually dropped the suit but not before residents had one by one signed affidavits swearing that they had not taken part in putting up signs and ribbons and dropped out of the campaign from fear.

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Additional Material

Tobi Lippin, 'Uncivil Suits', Technology Review, Vol. 94, No. 3 (1991) , p. 15.

Brent Hoare, 'SLAPP Suits: Silencing the Opponents of Destruction', World Rainforest Report, Vol. 25 (1993) , p.10.

George W. Pring, Penelope Canan and Vicky Thomas-McGuirk, 'SLAPPS: A New Crisis and Opportunity for the Government Attorney-part 1', National Environmental Enforcement Journal, April (1994), p. 3.

Diana Jean Schemo, 'Silencing the Opposition Gets Harder', New York Times, 2 July 1992.

Catherine Dold, 'SLAPP Back!', Buzzworm: The Environmental Journal, Vol. IV, No. 4 (1992) , p. 36.

Mirabelle, 'Multinationals Get SLAPP-Happy: Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation', Earth First! (Lughnasadh 1993)

Environmental Background Information Center (US)

Veggie Libel Suits Are Meant to SLAPP Free Speech (US)

Forest Guardians Attacked by SLAPP (US)

Carol Denney and the University of California (US) and update

Some Suits' Aim Is Silence - Retired wildlife biologist Art Hawkins

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