John A. Brock, George Kaiser, David Rainbolt, Christine F. Fletcher, Bob Howell, Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse…

Summary

The Supreme Court of Oklahoma granted a writ of prohibition halting a district court defamation, tortious interference, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and civil conspiracy action brought by two trial lawyers against Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALA) and five of its leaders. Applying the Conley v. Gibson standard, the court held the plaintiffs could prove no set of facts supporting relief because CALA's November 14, 1994 letter advocating two initiative petitions (limiting punitive damages and contingency fees) was protected political speech and petitioning activity under the Oklahoma Constitution. The court rested its decision on adequate and independent state constitutional grounds—free speech (Art. 2, § 22), right to petition (Art. 2, § 3), and the initiative process (Art. 5)—noting federal Noerr-Pennington jurisprudence is unsettled and need not be dispositive of state constitutional rights.