Davis v. Shavers

By holding that voters who file a recall application have only a conditional privilege, the majority has unnecessarily eroded the right of recall. Few individuals will sign a recall petition, much less lead a recall effort, when they may face the possibility of a libel action for their participation. Because the court’s opinion will have a chilling effect on political speech and the recall statute already provides sufficient safeguards to protect elected officials from false allegations, I dissent.

1. The Recall Act of 1989 outlines the procedure for seeking recall of public officials.1 To…