Over 11 million Ohioans woke up this morning with greater protection for their free speech rights. On January 8, 2024, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed into law Senate Bill 237 of the 135th General Assembly which creates the Ohio Uniform Public Expression Protection Act (UPEPA) at § 2747.01, et seq. of the Ohio Revised Code. The Buckeye State becomes the ninth state to adopt the UPEPA as created by the Uniform Law Commission, plus Oregon which has adopted substantially similar legislation. Illustrating the bipartisan nature of the UPEPA, it was passed unanimously by both the Ohio Senate and House of Representatives.
By adopting the UPEPA, Ohio now has a cutting-edge Anti-SLAPP statute which protects the free speech and public participation rights of its citizens. These laws protect a person who is subject to frivolous litigation that is meant to prevent or retaliate for their lawful use of their free speech and related rights, by way of allowing these persons to obtain an early dismissal of such litigation and compensation for their court costs and attorney fees incurred in the process. In other words, Anti-SLAPP laws prevent bad people from misusing the courts to shut up others who have done nothing more than lawfully express themselves. The UPEPA is a particularly powerful Anti-SLAPP law because it is the most advanced form of these laws and additionally has the huge benefit of uniformity, meaning that the courts of one state may rely upon the opinions of the courts of other UPEPA states for help in resolving issues.
Although a number of folks in the Ohio Assembly, such as bill sponsors and co-sponsors and ultimately Governor DeWine, may rightfully claim credit for the Ohio UPEPA’s passage, a special mention must be made of Rep. William J. “Bill” Seitz who served as the Majority Floor Leader of the Ohio House of Representatives. It was Rep. Seitz who initiated the idea of the Ohio UPEPA and pushed it through to final passage. Although Rep. Seitz may certainly claim credit for whole large bodies of important legislation passed on his watch, none are likely to be as important in protecting First Amendment rights as those protected by the UPEPA. Kudos, well done, and thank you.
Looking at the text of Ohio’s UPEPA, this is a relatively clean enactment insofar as there are few non-uniform provisions. The one Ohio apparent modification is to clarify that a person filing a UPEPA special motion may collect attorney fees even where those attorney fees are contingent upon the outcome of the motion or was undertaken by an attorney acting on a pro bono basis. S.B. 237 also modified other related legislation so that it better interfaces with the UPEPA.
There are now 35 states which have some form of Anti-SLAPP statutes. Prior to this adoption, Ohio was the most populated state that did not have any Anti-SLAPP law. Eight of ten of the largest states now have Anti-SLAPP laws, with Michigan (whose legislature is considering the UPEPA) and North Carolina being the two outliers which currently having no Anti-SLAPP legislation at all. In addition to Michigan, the legislatures of several other states are considering the UPEPA either as their first Anti-SLAPP law or as the replacement for their outdated statutes. Hopefully, 2025 will bring a slate of new UPEPA enactments.
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