Henne v. City of Yakima

¶1 The city of Yakima claims the protection of statutes that were designed to protect the rights of those who engage in First Amendment protected communicative activity. U.S. Const, amend. I. Those statutes — Washington’s “anti-SLAPP”1 laws — protect speakers against frivolous, speech-chilling lawsuits. We hold that a governmental entity like Yakima cannot take advantage of the anti-SLAPP statutes at least where, as here, the challenged lawsuit is not based on the government’s own communicative activity. We reverse the Court of Appeals’ *450decision to dismiss as moot Yakima’s appeal of the trial…