The Nightmare

If you think that you have the constitutional right to bring a lawsuit, and to have a jury decide your case in California in accordance with due process of law, think again…you don't. The California Constitution specifically states that you have these freedoms and rights, and so does the United States Constitution. But a bare majority (four Justices) of the California Supreme Court has overruled both Constitutions, and the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to even discuss the issues. In effect, your cherished constitutional rights have been unlawfully repealed without your consent…and even without your knowledge.

In 1992, the California Legislature passed an antiSLAPP law which was intended to protect the First Amendment rights of free speech and to petition the government for redress of grievances.1 But through extraordinarily broad and highly dubious interpretation of this law by the majority of the California Supreme Court, the antiSLAPP law was turned completely around to defeat such constitutional rights. The minority of the California Supreme Court (three Justices) describes this nightmare, as follows:

"The cure has become the disease - SLAPP motions are now just the latest form of abusive litigation."

In effect, the majority of the California Supreme Court has given the trial judges in California the absolute power to dismiss almost any lawsuit for almost any reason that may be linked to an anti-SLAPP motion. The judges are now all-powerful, with almost no procedural checks, balances or restraints. Remember the sage quote: "Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely!" The Draconian result is this: if you cannot bring and prosecute a lawsuit before a jury in order to enforce your constitutional freedoms and other rights, then all of such constitutional freedoms and other rights no longer exist.2

Powerful newspaper publishers, magazine publishers, and other media executives in California will not inform you of the true situation, because your loss is their gain. Both Constitutions protect their rights to publish and broadcast; but if you try to sue them for defamation (libel or slander) they can now raise an antiSLAPP defense and easily have your lawsuit thrown out of court. Powerful groups of lawyers also love the current unfair and unconstitutional situation. Why? Because now they can easily have your case dismissed, and then collect huge attorney fees from you in the process.
Powerful corporations don't want you to sue them before a jury of your peers, because juries will be more sympathetic to your case and will likely grant you greater damages than will a judge. In turn, many judges dislike our former constitutional rights of free access to the courts and the jury process. They often try to frustrate such rights, because such rights increase the judicial workload and because they diminish the power, control, influence and stature of the judges. There are also many other powerful special interests, including many of your elected representatives, who want to sustain and protect the current undemocratic and unconstitutional situation for various self-serving reasons.

With this overwhelming coalition of forces allied against the average citizen, no wonder that your constitutional rights and freedoms are being abridged, denied and destroyed before your very eyes…often by the very persons whom you trust for protection. Your only recourse and remedy, is: to become fully informed about what is going on, and then to rise up, organize and demand the reinstatement of your constitutional rights.

You can begin this process by reading the enclosed Petition to the United States Supreme Court in the case of Jacobs v. Lawler (No. 04-498) which is set forth in full text on this website.3 It describes, in language which any intelligent layperson can understand, your constitutional rights and freedoms…and how they are being systematically eroded and destroyed by the above-described coalition of forces.4

To contact the Petitioner, click here.