Today the Second District Court of Appeal issued an opinion dealing with the use of sex offender information published on the Megan’s Law Website (MLW) and the First Amendment:
The appeal before us today arises from a case in which the interests protected by the MLW statute meet face-to-face with the interests protected by the anti-SLAPP statute. The appeal presents us with two primary questions. First, does an employment-screening business have a constitutional free speech right — as such rights are defined in the anti-SLAPP statute — to republish information disclosed on the MLW to the business’s clients, notwithstanding the statutory prohibitions on the use of such information? Second, in the event such a constitutional free speech right exists, did the trial court properly grant the business’s anti-SLAPP motion to strike an MLW-based complaint for damages on the ground that plaintiff could not show as a matter of law a probability of prevailing?
We answer both questions, yes. The order dismissing plaintiff’s MLW-based complaint under the anti-SLAPP statute is affirmed.
Mendoza v. ADP Screening and Selection Services, Inc. (2010).
