SLAPP

SLAPP (pronounced slap)

1980s: An acronym: Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.  A lawsuit filed strategically by a corporation against a group or activist opposing certain action taken by the corporation, often to retaliate against an environmental protest.

The purpose of filing a SLAPP is to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition.  Such lawsuits have been made illegal in many jurisdictions on the grounds they impede freedom of speech.  In legal terms, a suit found to be a SLAPP can be dismissed as an “abuse of process”.

The acronym was coined in the 1980s by two University of Denver academic lawyers.  It meant originally a “lawsuit involving communications made to influence a governmental action or outcome, which resulted in a civil complaint or counterclaim filed against nongovernment individuals or organizations on a substantive issue of some public interest or social significance."  The idea that a government contact had to be about a public issue, protected by the First Amendment, was later dropped and in the US, different jurisdictions attach different definitions, some even having legislated that it includes suits about speech on any public issue.  In Australia, the Protection of Public Participation Act (2008), unique to the Australian Capital Territory (essentially Canberra), protects conduct intended to influence public opinion or promote or further action in relation to an issue of public interest.  SLAPP suits existed long before the acronym was coined, the oldest involving the right to petition government in tenth century Britain and there is a clear nexus between First Amendment rights in the US and the seventeenth century English Bill of Rights.  Later, in the American colonies, the Declaration of Rights and Grievances (1765) emerged as an outgrowth of the reaction to the hated Stamp Act (1765), and included the right to petition King and Parliament.

The US Institute for Free Speech's (IFS) 2023 map of US states which have enacted "functionally robust" anti-SLAPP laws.  The IFS report card rated the states using the tradition school marking system (from "A" (excellent) to "F" (fail (in this instance "non-existent")) and interestingly, there is no clear Republican state / Democratic state divide.  The trend is though encouraging because in 2024 Maine, Minnesota and Pennsylvania have all enacted robust anti-SLAPP statutes.

Slap

Slap (pronounced slap)

(1) A sharp blow or smack, especially with the open hand or with something flat; a sound made by or as if by such a blow or smack.

(2) By analogy, a sharply worded or sarcastic rebuke or comment.

(3) To put or place something promptly and sometimes haphazardly (often followed by on; if haphazard, often described as slapdash).

(4) As slap on the wrist, relatively mild criticism or censure, often used critically when more onerous punishments are available.

(5) A gap or opening, as in a fence, wall, cloud bank, or line of troops; a mountain pass; a wound or gash (now rare).

(6) As slap-sole, an additional sole affixed between the heel and sole of a high-heeled shoe. 

(7) In slang, make up (based on the notion "that which is slapped on").

(8) In slang, a poster (based on the notion "slapped onto the wall").  

Origin uncertain: It’s been linked to the (1325–1375) Middle English slop from the Middle Dutch or Middle Low German (cognate with German Schlupf (hiding place)) though with little support.  The seventeenth century Middle English slappen is of uncertain origin and probably imitative, drawing from the Low German Slapp & Slappe (slap) from which Modern German gained Schlappe (defeat).  Most suggest the verb use (in the sense of “strike with an open hand”) began in the late fifteenth century, became an adverb in the 1670s, and picked up the meanings “suddenly” or “directly” in 1829.  The noun form dates from the mid fifteenth century, again apparently of imitative origin, similar to the various German forms slappe & Schlappe.  The figurative meaning "insult, reprimand" is attested from 1736; the now probably obsolete “slap-happy” (1936) originally meant "punch-drunk and “slap on the wrist” meaning "very mild punishment" dates from 1914.  The modern acronym SLAPP is unrelated.  Slap is a noun, verb & adverb, slapping is a noun, slapper is a noun, verb & adjective, slapped is a verb and slappy is a noun & adjective; the noun plural is slaps.

Slap soles

Although they became high (and occasionally extreme) fashion items, slap soles began as a purely functional addition to men’s boots.  In the seventeenth century, men of a certain class, upon dismounting their horses, would slip a flat-soled mule over their riding boots to stop their heels sinking into the ground.  Presumably seeing a gap in the market, cobblers began to attach an additional sole, extending from tip to heel but not actually attached to the heel, a design which when walking, produced a clacking, slapping sound.  The apparently strange design existed so that riding boots would still fit securely in the stirrups and not interfere with the spurs.

Men in slap-soled boots.  Portrait of Lord John Stuart and his brother Lord Bernard Stuart (circa 1638), oil on canvas by Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641).

Seventeenth century women's slap-soled shoes.

History doesn’t record whether women were attracted to the style or just the idea of being able to wear their newly fashionable high-heels without also sinking into the soil but the concept was soon extended to women’s shoes.  However, when applied to women’s shoes, although the slap-sole name stuck, there was no slapping sound when walking because the sole was this time anchored at the heel as well.  It’s essentially the same concept used on a tank or bulldozer, a self-laying track which renders a more stable surface on which to move.  So bizarre was the appearance of these shoes that they have long been a collectable and the delicate, intricate detailing on many does suggest many of them must have been created purely as pieces of high-fashion.  Doubtless there were some women of the horsey set who used the genuine slapping-soles as did the men but on the (admittedly hardly representative) basis of the surviving depictions, more seem to have worn them far from muddy stable yards.

Usage guide for “slap”:  An example of a literal “slap” is being “slapped in the face” by the mother of the children one is attempting to “rescue from traffickers” on the streets of Moscow.  A figurative “slap” is being “slapped with a parking fine” for leaving one’s Cadillac Escalade parked next to a fire hydrant.  Overlap is possible because a parking ticket is in some places still a physical slip of paper or cardboard so one literally could be “slapped with a parking ticket”.  Instances of such presumably are rare but to avoid ambiguity the correct use is “slapped with a parking fine” (figurative) or “slapped with a parking ticket” (the literal assault & battery).