State Representative Alex Kolodin (R-Scottsdale) proposed a bill Tuesday, a week ago that would stop lawfare and the political prosecutions of opponents. HB 2633 broadens laws against Strategic Legal Actions Against Public Participation (known as anti-SLAPP laws) to include political and religious expression, creates additional remedies against state actors who bring SLAPP suits, and establishes an avenue for post-conviction relief when a defendant asserts that a prosecution was politically motivated. Anti-SLAPP laws prohibit using the courts to suppress the First Amendment, including the constitutional rights of petition, speech, and association.
Kolodin, an election and constitutional attorney, announced the bill on X, quoting President Donald Trump. “‘Never again will the immense power of the state be used to prosecute political opponents!’ – Trump,” he said. “HB2633 turns that promise into law. It’s up in Judiciary next week. Show up. Speak out. Make the Constitution great again!”
Kolodin told The Arizona Sun Times why he brought the bill, “We have seen political disagreements become criminalized, and we’ve seen the justice system transformed into a tool of political repression. President Trump promised the American people in his inaugural address that no more will the power of the state be used in order to repress political opponents. And I know that after four years of dealing with that kind of repression, the guy really means it from the bottom of his heart. And what we want to do at the state level is bring that promise into law as part of President Trump’s Republican Party.”
He said after the 2020 election, when the election political lawfare ramped up, he started receiving numerous calls from constituents terrified of being targeted for their posts on social media. They asked him whether they might be prosecuted.
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