Wyoming

This guide was authored by Zivile Raskauskaite, Skye Lucas, and Sara George, working with Professor Jared Schroeder at the Missouri School of Journalism. Grant support for this project was provided by the Society to Protect Journalists and the Reynolds Journalism Institute. 

Anti-SLAPP protection: Wyoming does not have an anti-SLAPP law.

Helpful cases: Wyoming has never had an anti-SLAPP law, nor has any state court explicitly cited SLAPP-related concerns in a decision. As a result, there are few helpful cases that pertain to journalists. These three cases, all from the Wyoming Supreme Court, dealt with defamation lawsuits that were dismissed.

• Dworkin v. L.F.P., Inc., 839 P.2d 903 (Wyo. 1992): Plaintiffs, an anti-pornography activist and two others, sued Hustler Magazine and other defendants for publishing an article attacking her. She alleged libel and other claims, which the trial court dismissed, granting a motion for judgment on the pleadings filed by defendants after discovery.  On appeal, plaintiffs challenged the dismissal of the libel claim and argued that summary judgment was not appropriate.  The Wyoming Supreme Court  affirmed the lower court, finding that plaintiffs had failed to show actual malice and that several of the challenged statements were nonactionable opinions.

• Davis v. Big Horn Basin Newspapers, Inc., 884 P.2d 979 (Wyo. 1994): An attorney sued defendants, a newspaper publisher and reporters, for defamation following its accounts of his behavior during a high-profile hearing. The trial court granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment (and denied plaintiff’s motion for monetary sanctions), and the Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed, finding that the plaintiff was a public figure and he had failed to show actual malice.  Instead, his allegations were “little more than appellant’s subjective interpretation of the articles.”  Id. at 984.

• Hill v. Stubson, 420 P.3d 732 (Wyo. 2018): A state superintendent of schools sued a state lawmaker for defamation per se arising from the defendant’s critical statements about the plaintiff.  The district court dismissing the complaint for failure to state a claim of actual malice. The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed the dismissal but on different grounds, finding that the complaint had adequately alleged actual malice but failed to allege the requirements for defamation per se (that is, that plaintiff “had engaged in conduct involving moral turpitude or conduct for which she could be imprisoned,” id. at 744).  

Legislative activity: Wyoming lawmakers have not proposed an anti-SLAPP law in recent years.