Another Individual With Strong Voice Makes Difference

Both houses of the New York State legislature have now passed what some are calling “Rachel’s Law.” It provides protection to American authors against “libel terrorism,” seeking to enforce judgments in New York State that were granted in other countries without our level of free speech protections. The law now just awaits signing by NYS’s new governor, David Paterson.

The press release is in the post below.

One of the co-sponsors of the law, Senator Skelos, says, “The truth is a critically-important component in the War on Terror…This important new law will protect American authors and journalists who expose terrorist networks and their financiers.”

I spoke briefly with Rachel Ehrenfeld tonight. She is, of course, elated at this victory, which she stubbornly waged as an individual transplanted to our shores because of her belief in America’s freedoms. Ehrenfeld agrees, “this is what America is about” when individuals can have this impact.

Now, there remains a long road through the courts to overturn the “libel terrorism” judgment’s enforceability in our courts. Financial help is needed. Click here to help, at the American Center For Democracy.

David Siegel, longtime editor of the New York State Law Digest, wrote in the March 12 New York Law Journal,

[A]ny bill that tries to address any situation as complex as Ehrenfeld is going to pose constitutional issues. If I may be allowed a flippancy, so what! It will boil down to the classic situation in which a statute toils near the border of constitutionality and leaves it to the courts to draw the line.

Far worse than that would be to do nothing in the face of what seems to me an egregious effort, in a forum with libel laws offensive to our own and a dubious venue for the Ehrenfeld case to boot, to let an alleged libel victim pull off a coup in which he makes it too expensive for a New York writer to contest his foreign lawsuit…

For more background, here’s some of my earlier posts about Rachel Ehrenfeld’s heroic fight for free speech.

Publishers Rally For Freedom Of Speech

Rally For Freedom Of Speech

International Libel Threats To US Freedom Of Speech

Terrorism Libel A Growing Business In England

Publishers Beware: NY State Says First Amendment Inapplicable

John Doe, Rachel Ehrenfeld, & Fairness Doctrine

Rachel Ehrenfeld Strikes Back At Libel Tourism