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By Liam Scott Columbia Journalism Review Originally published Dec. 4, 2025 Press freedom advocates and media lawyers in the United States have long warned about the rise of frivolous lawsuits intended to intimidate and silence journalists through expensive legal battles. But despite anecdotal evidence, the problem has remained amorphous. No one has been able to say just how bad it is because no one has closely tracked the filings, known as strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPPs. A free speech group at New York University is trying to change that. In November, as President Donald Trump threatened to sue the BBC [...]

By Bill Zeeble KERA Originally published Oct. 22, 2025 The 2023 Texas law requiring booksellers and publishers to rate their books based on sexual content and references has been declared unconstitutional in a Waco court. A federal judge on Tuesday declared House Bill 900, also known as the READER Act, violates the constitution. The ruling makes permanent a lower court's temporary injunction that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals later upheld. The law firm Haynes Boone, which represented the coalition of plaintiffs that sued to block the law, said in a statement the ruling is a "major First Amendment victory." Read [...]