This is the second in our series of Q&As with people who have firsthand experience with the Texas Citizens Participation Act. Read the first Q&A with Carol Hemphill here.
ProPublica’s Charles Ornstein knows a thing or two about why laws protecting reporters from meritless lawsuits are so important.
In 2018, Dr. O.H. “Bud” Frazier sued Ornstein and another reporter, Mike Hixenbaugh, over an article they wrote reporting on both Dr. Frazier’s medical breakthroughs, and accusations that he violated federal research rules and skirted ethical guidelines.
To defend themselves, the journalists and their outlets turned to the Texas Citizens Participation Act, a law that protects defendants from meritless lawsuits based on speech known as strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPPs. In 2024, the case was dismissed under the TCPA.
Ornstein has written about the impact of the lawsuit before. But as the Texas legislature considers proposals to change the TCPA in ways that would make it more expensive for SLAPP victims to defend themselves and more difficult to recover their attorneys fees, we wanted to revisit the case and get Ornstein’s take on why these parts of the law matter. Here’s what he had to say.
