The hubris and arrogance of Missouri’s Amendment 2 crowd apparently knows no limits. Having poured around $20 million into their campaign to convince Missouri voters they are outlawing human cloning when they are actually trying to create a constitutional amendment to protect it, they have apparently now threatened to sue opponents for pointing out this truth in a television ad and to prevent television stations from airing the ads. The threat apparently, and it is an empty one, is to sue for slander. But truth is an absolute defense to that tort.
This bullying tactic is known in the trade as a threatened Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, or SLAPP. (Ralph Nader and I exposed this power tactic in our book No Contest: Corporate Lawyers and the Perversion of Justice in America.) What the Amendment 2 crowd really seeks is a one-sided debate in which only they get to speak. More proof that the cloners are contemptuous of true democracy in general and disrespectful of Missouri voters. The Show Me State should show them the door.
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