ACLU of Minnesota applauds Minnesota Court of Appeals reversal of an earlier district court decision which restricted First Amendment rights.
In July 2008 the ACLU filed a friend of the court brief in defense of James Stengrim's First Amendment Rights. Mr. Stengrim was sued by the Middle Snake Tamarac Rivers Watershed District, a local government entity, for expressing an opinion critical of the District's flood control plans. Mr. Stengrim and other land owners opposing the flood control project filed suit against the District in 2002. At that time a settlement agreement was reached and one provision of it forbade the land owners from challenging the project again. Consistent with the agreement, Mr. Stengrim has not filed a legal challenge since, but remains an outspoken critic of the District's handling of the project. When he was sued for violating the settlement agreement, he tried to use Minnesota's anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) law which allows defendants to seek the dismissal of any civil suit that seeks to silence lawful speech or action aimed at government action, but the district courts refused to apply that law. So the ACLU filed an amicus brief in Mr. Stengrim's defense when the case was appealed to the Minnesota Court of Appeals.
Earlier this week Mr. Stengrim was vindicated when the Minnesota Court of Appeals reversed the district court decision which said that the anti-SLAPP law did not apply in the Stengrim case. The ACLU's amicus brief argued that the anti-SLAPP law should protect Mr Stengrim, and that one cannot sign away their first amendment rights.
The court of appeals reversed the district court decision, and said that Mr. Stengrim has the right to use the anti-SLAPP law to defend his First Amendment rights. We applaud the MN Court of Appeals decision.