Senate Bill 444 was a sneak attack on free speech in Nevada. It wasn’t announced in advance, like most legislation. To the extent anyone would have seen it, it got put on the agenda under the innocuous name “Revises provisions governing civil actions.”
But, what it really does is cut the guts out of the Nevada Anti-SLAPP law. Don’t just take my word for it:
The Las Vegas Review-Journal is against Senate Bill 444.
The Sparks Tribune is against it.
TechDirt has an opinion, guess what it is.
The Elko Daily? Nope, no support for Senate Bill 444 there either.
No single senator put his name on the bill, but State Senator Greg Brower was the guy who seemed to lob softballs at the proponent of it. (Video here) I can’t tell if he didn’t know that he was driving jobs from Nevada and taking away Nevadans’ free speech rights, all at the behest of a Californian who got to go home to his completely-intact Anti-SLAPP law.
Greg Brower.
Remember the name. Lets see what he does now.
In his last election, Greg Brower only took 50.23% of the vote vs. 49.77%. He’s up for re-election in 15 months.
His seat is vulnerable, and this is an important bipartisan issue.
But, lets remember that nobody is beyond redemption. Maybe there’s a way he can fix this. Maybe he can do what Senator Segerblom did. Segerblom had an amazing amount of class – according to a tweet by John Ralston, Segerbloom said that he and his colleagues were “asleep at the wheel.” (source) Fair enough. We all screw up at work sometimes. I can forgive that.
And, I think that if Brower really thinks about it and changes positions, its going to show that hey, one got past him, but he’s got the wisdom to fix messes if he makes them. I can respect that.
Lets remember where he is from — Washoe county. The Washoe County School District was saved by the Anti-SLAPP law that Brower just took a big dump all over. (Case here) C’mon, Greg, think about this.
I would be prepared to reverse position if he does. But, if he stays on this path of getting Senate Bill 444 to cast a shadow over Nevada’s Anti-SLAPP law, I’m going to fundraise in the next election with the single-minded determination to get him out of Carson City.
Of course, if Brower changes his mind, I would put a yard sign out for him and wear his campaign gear.
I have to believe that given the bipartisan hatred of this bill, I’m not the only one.
Greg Brower, fix this mess. Its a not too late.
