"‘Weed 9’ Water Activists Present Legal Claim Against Sacramento Law Firm for Filing Malicious Lawsuit Aimed at Silencing Free Speech", 29 Apr 2020

The CLDC has filed a lawsuit in the Siskiyou County Superior Court of California, alleging that the Sacramento law firm Churchwell White LLP and two of its attorneys engaged in malicious and unlawful conduct when they filed a lawsuit against nine local activists and their community organization, Water for Citizens of Weed, California (WCWC) in May of 2017. That suit was dismissed in December 2017 under California’s anti-SLAPP law and the company was ordered to reimburse the activists and WCWC for legal fees...

...The nine activists had participated in town meetings and taken other grassroots actions as members of WCWC, to educate their community about the threat to their water supply. After writing a letter requesting assistance from a state agency, and speaking out during a local meeting, they found themselves in court being sued by a $900 million timber company...

...The new complaint (...) was filed in California Superior Court for Siskiyou County, case number CVCV20-387...

...The complaint asserts that Churchwell White lawyers named WCWC and its members as defendants in the Roseburg suit as a way to “silence, intimidate, and prevent WCWC from engaging in conduct that is protected under the U.S. and California Constitutions.”