Petitioning’s Outer Limits
In Massachusetts you can’t sue someone for petitioning the government unless your hypothetical adversary’s petition doesn’t have a factual basis. Things spin wildly out of control, though, since “petitioning” encompasses a rather large body of activities, including filing a lawsuit and talking to the press about a lawsuit you’ve filed. Today, the Appeals Court held that talking smack about a private company to a charitable foundation connected to the convention center in South Boston isn’t petitioning, even though the foundation was created by the legislature. This is probably right, though suing someone for talking smack (unless the smack is false) is a bit questionable.
No comments:
Post a Comment