Stung by a multimillion-dollar judgment in a libel case brought by the chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court, a Kane County newspaper is fighting back with a new state law that protects corporate and government critics.
The Kane County Chronicle and former columnist Bill Page have filed a motion asking that the judgment for Chief Justice Robert Thomas be overturned, citing a statute that limits what are known as strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPP suits.
It appears to be the first case involving the Illinois law, which was passed in August and broadly immunizes citizens and journalists when criticizing officials, said Bruce Sanford, a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer for the Chronicle.
The anti-SLAPP law “obviously applies to pending litigation and future litigation,” Sanford said.
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But Joe Power, a Chicago lawyer for Thomas, said the Chronicle is engaging in nuisance motions and misapplying the law. The law, he said, was written to stop corporations from suing to shut up whistle-blowers and has nothing to do with this case.
“It’s a complete and utterly frivolous motion,” Power said. “It’s shameful the things these lawyers are doing.”
Donald Craven, general counsel for the Illinois Press Association, said the anti-SLAPP law was modeled after a California statute that, for example, prevents a powerful developer from interfering with the free speech rights of critics in a local neighborhood association by tying up the homeowners in court. It also has been applied in media cases, he said.
The Illinois law sets up a speedy hearing for people involved in “just-shut-up litigation,” said Craven, who filed an anti-SLAPP motion in an unrelated case Wednesday, a day after the Chronicle’s motion was filed.
“In essence, it is designed to give very quick effect to those who are exercising their 1st Amendment rights,” Craven said.
The Chronicle lost in a jury trial last year, but it argued that the law is retroactive in ongoing cases. The Chronicle is both appealing and fighting to reverse the suit in federal court, arguing that the court system headed by Thomas was stacked against it.
Even as lawyers for both sides were preparing for a court-ordered mediation Thursday, the motion citing the anti-SLAPP law asked trial Judge Donald O’Brien to dismiss the $4 million judgment won by Thomas. A jury awarded Thomas $7 million — later reduced by O’Brien — after Page accused him in a column of trading a vote to gain support for a judicial candidate he favored.
The jury agreed with Thomas that Page’s allegations were false, malicious and potentially damaging to Thomas’ career.
But the paper has asked the Supreme Court to reverse three decisions, including one to change the court venue and another to transfer Appellate Court judges to hear the case. This month the court declined to consider the Chronicle’s motion because it lacked a quorum after several justices testified on Thomas’ behalf.
Sanford asked how the justices could have issued rulings then but now claim to lack a quorum to reconsider their decisions.
“It’s judicial vaudeville, and they’re really lucky the public isn’t throwing tomatoes at them,” Sanford said.
Power countered that the decisions to which the Chronicle objected are simple administrative matters.
A spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office, which is representing the Illinois Supreme Court in the federal hearing, declined to comment.
A federal judge ordered the mediation in an attempt to settle both the federal and state cases. Power said he had no idea what to expect, given the Chronicle’s unusual tactics.
“I really don’t know what I’m dealing with here,” Power said. “I’ve never seen anything like this. Probably no one has — all the lawsuits they’ve been filing. It’s incredible.”
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