By stunningly lopsided votes (Senate 32-1-2, House 70-0-0), the Idaho legislature has approved the passage of the Idaho Uniform Public Expression Protection Act, known as “UPEPA”, into law. The Idaho UPEPA now goes to Governor Brad Little for signing but will not go into effect until January 1, 2026.
This now makes ten states that have adopted the UPEPA as their Anti-SLAPP statute (or 11 if one counts Oregon as some do). Thus, the UPEPA now represents almost one-third of all the Anti-SLAPP statutes in the United States.
Looking at the text of the legislation, which is found as Idaho SB1001 here, it appears to be a very clean enactment of the UPEPA, which means that it is without any major non-uniform provisions. There are some minor procedural references to local Idaho statutes, but this is normal and to be expected.
Prior to the passage of the UPEPA, Idaho had no Anti-SLAPP law at all to protect free speech and expression. As I discussed in connection with the Ohio UPEPA that was enacted in January of this year, this demonstrates the power of the UPEPA as a Uniform Laws Committee legislation to bring quality Anti-SLAPP laws to those states which had no Anti-SLAPP statutes before.
For those who are unfamiliar, the purpose of Anti-SLAPP laws ― including the UPEPA ― are to nip in the bud frivolous lawsuits that infringe upon free speech by, essentially, moving the summary judgment procedure up from the end of a case to the outset of the case. Thus, lawsuits that are designed to harass folks into shutting up about something, or to retaliate against them for exercising their free speech rights, are thrown out of court very quickly. This keeps abusive litigants from using the litigation itself to harass folks.
So it is a good day for the citizens of Idaho. Congratulations!
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