"It's a sadly familiar sight in courthouses around the country: A deep-pocketed corporation, developer or government official files a lawsuit whose real purpose is to silence a critic, punish a whistleblower or win a commercial dispute."

Sounds awful, right?

Fortunately, according to The Los Angeles Times editorial board, "that's why California enacted a law in 1992 to give people a pre-emptive legal strike against frivolous lawsuits that seek to muzzle them on public issues." According to the Digital Media Law Project, 28 states, Washington, D.C., and one U.S. territory have enacted these "anti-SLAPP statutes." (SLAPP stands for "strategic lawsuit against public participation." A classic example was when the cattle industry sued Oprah for dissing beef.)