In December 2005, leaders of the North Airport Drive Civic Association in eastern Henrico County did what civic leaders do almost every week somewhere in our Commonwealth. They made phone calls and talked to their neighbors, and got a lot of them to come out to a hearing of the County Board of Supervisors. Several members spoke up at the hearing against a rezoning application that would have rezoned agricultural land for residential development. Then, according to the minutes of the meeting, “A large group of citizens who were against the case and in favor of one-acre lot sizes on the site stood up in the audience.”

It’s all pretty standard. The Civic Association won their case and stopped the rezoning, and that’s also pretty standard. But the next June, this story got very strange.

A developer’s purchase of the property, for $1.5 million, had been contingent on the rezoning. In June, the rezoning applicant sued the association’s president and another board member for $5 million for “civil conspiracy and tortious interference with business expectancy.”

On its website, http://mysite.verizon.net/vze7whks/ index.html, the Civic Association writes in capital letters “AS CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES, OUR FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND OUR RIGHT TO PETITION OUR GOVERNMENT MAY BE AT RISK!” Farther down the page, the website links to information about SLAPP suits.

What are SLAPP suits? In the words of Lisa Guthrie, executive director of the Virginia League of Conservation Voters (VALCV), “Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation have become the SLAPP in the face to numerous citizen activists speaking out on local land use controversies.” Guthrie said, “ In the upcoming session of the General Assembly, we intend to defend Virginians’ right to defend their communities. We’re working with legislators to introduce bills that will hold these lawsuits in check and protect citizens’ First Amendment rights.”

VALCV, the political voice for the environment in Virginia, supports citizens who organize to influence the decisions of their elected officials at both the state and local levels. In communities throughout the state, ordinary citizens become activists in response to developers’ plans for their towns and counties. Civic associations and loose-knit groups of neighbors under an impromptu banner, and with small budgets, are often the first line of defense.

Typically, lawsuits of this kind have no legal merit. “Filers of SLAPPs rarely win in court yet often ‘win’ in the real world, achieving their political agendas,” according to George Pring and Penelope Canan, authors of SLAPPs: Getting Sued for Speaking Out. “SLAPP targets who fight back seldom lose in court yet are frequently devastated and depoliticized. . .”

Twenty-three states have passed anti-SLAPP legislation, but Virginia’s statutes continue to offer inadequate protection to citizens who exercise their First Amendment Rights. VALCV hopes to right this wrong in the upcoming session and has secured a Senate patron to introduce legislation that will ensure citizen involvement in their government doesn’t come with reprisals. As New York Supreme Court Judge J. Nicholas Colabella has said, “Short of a gun to the head, a greater threat to First Amendment expression can scarcely be imagined.”

VALCV’s legislative agenda is not limited to opposing SLAPP suits. According to VALCV Program Coordinator Mike Kaestner, “The League’s conservation agenda includes goals for air quality, clean energy, transportation and other challenges Virginia faces in 2007.” The Virginia Conservation Briefing Book, with more detail on all of these goals, is available at www.valcv.org or by contacting the organization at the address and phone below.

Kaestner said, “On VALCV’s website you can also link to an online petition calling on Virginia’s legislators to take state actions to curb greenhouse gas emissions and move the Commonwealth to an energy future that prioritizes efficiency, conservation, and renewable sources. Once the General Assembly convenes on January 10 you can use the website’s Legislative Action Center to follow VALCV’s positions on key conservation bills and urge your delegate and senator to cast their votes for a cleaner, greener Virginia where citizens’ voices are heard.”

On the Virginia LCV website, you can also sign up for Conservation E-Action alerts and receive notices when your legislators need to hear from you before casting a critical vote.

For more information, please contact Lisa Guthrie at (804) 225-1902 or VirLCV@aol.com or contact Mike Kaestner at mkaestner@valcv.org.