In 2010, D.C. passed the Anti-Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation Act. Council Judiciary Committee Chairman Phil Mendelson noted in a memo to council colleagues that thousands of citizens throughout the nation “have been sued into silence.” Since the ultimate goal of SLAPP lawsuits is to use the long, costly legal battle as a weapon to punish and intimidate people for political activity, the new law is meant to protect D.C. residents from being sued for speaking out. It does so by providing for “the quick and efficient dismissal of strategic lawsuits against public participation.”

But the District is now trying to use that same law — one of the strongest in the country — to punish a former employee for speaking up about improprieties surrounding the city’s lottery contract, which is now under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Eric Payne, the former contracting director for Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi, had already filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the city, claiming that he was fired in 2009 for not succumbing to political pressure from Gandhi and Council member Jim Graham to change the lottery contract.