Our Federal Government’s Basic Purpose

In February of 2009, legislation was introduced in the 111th Congress that would protect the First Amendment rights of United States citizens when faced with malicious lawsuits, brought against them in foreign courts, claiming defamation.

---

The Free Speech Protection Act of 2009 is meant not only to secure and assure a US citizen's First Amendment right to free speech in the aforementioned circumstance, but to serve as a tool in guaranteeing our nation's sovereignty under constitutional law. As of this writing, Senate Bill 449, officially titled as introduced as 'A Bill to Protect Free Speech,' languishes in the Senate Judiciary Committee. We all must ask why. The Free Speech Protection Act of 2009 (the short title for S449) is meant to protect writers, authors, lecturers and any other US citizen against 'libel tourism,' a phrase emanating from a lawsuit over the book Funding Evil, by Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, explained in a short film titled The Libel Tourist and in an article titled, A Federal Law is Needed to Deter Libel Tourism, by Daniel J. Kornstein. Mr. Kornstein refers to libel tourism as:

'...when a person, usually prominent and wealthy, sues an American author for libel in a country that lacks the equivalent of First Amendment protections and where the American author never took any steps to publish or market the allegedly libelous work. Foreign courts may assert jurisdiction over American authors in these cases because the publication could be read over the Internet or because a handful of copies made their way into the foreign country via Amazon.com. Libel tourists often file suit in England because the laws there are very plaintiff friendly, and libel plaintiffs can obtain judgments there that they could not obtain in the United States.'

So, a wealthy individual, let's say a Saudi Sheik, who has come under scrutiny for actions identified as pro-jihadi or in support of al Qaeda, by an author or lecturer who happens to be an American citizen, can purchase a dozen copies of the book, published lecture notes or DVD in Britain, file a lawsuit for defamation and win adjudication --including monetary damages, all without the author or lecturer ever having set foot on British soil or having contracted to have the intellectual property offered in that country. More...