In Lewis v. StopAntisemitism, a federal judge applied Oregon’s anti-SLAPP law and rejected a musician’s defamation claim after an advocacy group published a social-media feature about her public Facebook posts on Israel and Gaza.
Court ruled the online posts were speech on matters of public interest and granted dismissal under Oregon’s anti-SLAPP statute.
The posts at issue included a keffiyeh photo and four text posts that expressed harsh positions on Israel, Gaza, Zionism, and Jewish people—materials StopAntisemitism republished with critical commentary.
Plaintiff is a professional musician who has worked as a private music teacher for over thirty years. During the 2023-2024 school year, plaintiff worked as an independent contractor at Valley Catholic Music School... [teaching] private violin and cello lessons to Valley Catholic students in practice rooms across the K-12 campus.
On August 21, 2024—the same day that StopAntisemitism shared its feature on plaintiff—Valley Catholic informed plaintiff that it would not be renewing her contract for the 2024-2025 school year.... Whether the statements are susceptible to bring proven true or false is a tricker question but ultimately nondispositive. Because "the expression of a personal viewpoint is not something that is susceptible to being proved true or false," defendants' statements cannot constitute actionable defamation....
StopAntisemitism, decided Friday by Judge Adrienne Nelson (D. The feature, which was spread across several X posts, includes screenshots of statements plaintiff made on her public Facebook account, archived links to those Facebook posts, and defendants' statements about plaintiff and her posts. Email info@valleycatholic.org." Below the final statement is an archived list of plaintiff's Facebook posts.
The district court had thrown out the case with no opportunity to file an amended complaint; the Ninth Circuit agrees that plaintiffs lacked standing to bring the claim, but allows them to refile an amended complaint to "cure the standing deficiencies" (if they can).
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The singer, who has faced several lawsuits asserting harassment, discrimination and a hostile work environment, has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.
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Once upon a time, displaying the bloodied head of a U.S. president could get you canceled. And it did. This was before cancel culture was a thing, a time when Americans had a shared sense of decency and found obviously heinous acts ... heinous. Earlier this year, 'Saturday Night Live’s' Weekend Update teased a Trump as
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