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Anti-SLAPP protections · 2025 Report Card

Can they sue you for saying it?

The cheapest way to silence a critic is not to win a lawsuit — it is to file one. Leave a bad review, complain to a regulator, publish a story, and the reply can be a writ you will spend two years and six figures answering. An anti-SLAPP law is the off switch: get it thrown out early, and send the bill to whoever filed it.

Ten states still have no off switch at all.

41
Jurisdictions with a working law
10
With nothing at all
9
Scoring a perfect 100
85
Median score of 100

Find your state

Colored by the Institute for Free Speech's anti-SLAPP score — deep red is no statute at all, green is the full set of protections. Click any state.

Alaska — anti-SLAPP score 0 of 100, grade FAlabama — anti-SLAPP score 0 of 100, grade FArkansas — anti-SLAPP score 61 of 100, grade CArizona — anti-SLAPP score 46 of 100, grade D+California — anti-SLAPP score 99 of 100, grade A+Colorado — anti-SLAPP score 97 of 100, grade AConnecticut — anti-SLAPP score 89 of 100, grade A-Delaware — anti-SLAPP score 100 of 100, grade A+Florida — anti-SLAPP score 59 of 100, grade C-Georgia — anti-SLAPP score 98 of 100, grade AHawaii — anti-SLAPP score 100 of 100, grade A+Iowa — anti-SLAPP score 100 of 100, grade A+Idaho — anti-SLAPP score 100 of 100, grade A+Illinois — anti-SLAPP score 59 of 100, grade C-Indiana — anti-SLAPP score 85 of 100, grade B+Kansas — anti-SLAPP score 92 of 100, grade A-Kentucky — anti-SLAPP score 100 of 100, grade A+Louisiana — anti-SLAPP score 90 of 100, grade A-Massachusetts — anti-SLAPP score 49 of 100, grade D+Maryland — anti-SLAPP score 37 of 100, grade DMaine — anti-SLAPP score 100 of 100, grade A+Michigan — graded F on the 2025 report card, but has since enacted an anti-SLAPP lawMinnesota — anti-SLAPP score 93 of 100, grade A-Missouri — graded D- on the 2025 report card, but has since enacted an anti-SLAPP lawMississippi — anti-SLAPP score 0 of 100, grade FMontana — anti-SLAPP score 100 of 100, grade A+North Carolina — anti-SLAPP score 0 of 100, grade FNorth Dakota — anti-SLAPP score 0 of 100, grade FNebraska — anti-SLAPP score 11 of 100, grade D-New Hampshire — anti-SLAPP score 0 of 100, grade FNew Jersey — anti-SLAPP score 97 of 100, grade ANew Mexico — anti-SLAPP score 31 of 100, grade DNevada — anti-SLAPP score 97 of 100, grade ANew York — anti-SLAPP score 99 of 100, grade A+Ohio — anti-SLAPP score 100 of 100, grade A+Oklahoma — anti-SLAPP score 97 of 100, grade AOregon — anti-SLAPP score 99 of 100, grade A+Pennsylvania — anti-SLAPP score 83 of 100, grade B+Rhode Island — anti-SLAPP score 80 of 100, grade BSouth Carolina — anti-SLAPP score 0 of 100, grade FSouth Dakota — graded F on the 2025 report card, but has since enacted an anti-SLAPP lawTennessee — anti-SLAPP score 97 of 100, grade ATexas — anti-SLAPP score 92 of 100, grade A-Utah — anti-SLAPP score 100 of 100, grade A+Virginia — anti-SLAPP score 70 of 100, grade C+Vermont — anti-SLAPP score 97 of 100, grade AWashington — anti-SLAPP score 93 of 100, grade A-Wisconsin — anti-SLAPP score 0 of 100, grade FWest Virginia — anti-SLAPP score 0 of 100, grade FWyoming — anti-SLAPP score 0 of 100, grade F
No law → full protectionNew law, not yet regradedDC B(no region on the map)

3 states the report card hasn't caught up with

The 2025 Report Card is the newest edition, and three states changed the law after it was published. Their grades below are the ones IFS still shows. The statutes are real and in force — which is why the map outlines them rather than painting them red.

  • MichiganF

    House Bill 4045 adopted the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act, making Michigan the 39th state with statutory anti-SLAPP protections.

    Enacted December 23, 2025

  • South DakotaF

    South Dakota became the 40th state to enact statutory anti-SLAPP protections.

    Enacted March 16, 2026

  • MissouriD-

    Missouri replaced its narrow public-hearing statute with the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act.

    Enacted July 14, 2026

What actually makes a law bite

Two thirds of the score is how much speech the statute covers. One third is what it does once it applies — and that part is scored on five things, which are the five questions worth asking of any anti-SLAPP bill.

  • up to 20 pts

    Case pauses while the motion is heard

  • up to 12 pts

    Plaintiff must show the case has merit

  • up to 25 pts

    Denial can be appealed at once

  • up to 40 pts

    Winning defendant recovers legal costs

  • up to 3 pts

    Courts told to read the law broadly

  • A law can cover every kind of speech and still be near-useless with none of these. Virginia scores 100 on coverage and 10 on protections.

All 51, ranked by score

The incident column is not a ranking. It counts what the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has logged in each state since 2014. Big states with big protests and big newsrooms dominate it for reasons that have little to do with state law, so it sits beside the score and is never added to it. The table is ordered by the anti-SLAPP score alone.
All 51 jurisdictions by Institute for Free Speech anti-SLAPP score
StateGradeScoreIncidents logged
DelawareA+
100
8
HawaiiA+
100
4
IdahoA+
100
10
IowaA+
100
17
KentuckyA+
100
26
MaineA+
100
6
MontanaA+
100
3
OhioA+
100
37
UtahA+
100
12
CaliforniaA+
99
558
New YorkA+
99
249
OregonA+
99
294
GeorgiaA
98
37
ColoradoA
97
44
NevadaA
97
18
New JerseyA
97
85
OklahomaA
97
10
TennesseeA
97
28
VermontA
97
6
MinnesotaA-
93
189
WashingtonA-
93
37
KansasA-
92
13
TexasA-
92
69
LouisianaA-
90
10
ConnecticutA-
89
4
IndianaB+
85
16
PennsylvaniaB+
83
48
Rhode IslandB
80
3
District of ColumbiaB
79
249
VirginiaC+
70
56
ArkansasC
61
13
FloridaC-
59
75
IllinoisC-
59
120
MassachusettsD+
49
40
ArizonaD+
46
28
MarylandD
37
27
New MexicoD
31
11
Missourinew law sinceD-
26
37
NebraskaD-
11
14
AlabamaF
0
16
AlaskaF
0
4
Michigannew law sinceF
0
33
MississippiF
0
8
New HampshireF
0
8
North CarolinaF
0
36
North DakotaF
0
16
South CarolinaF
0
10
South Dakotanew law sinceF
0
1
West VirginiaF
0
4
WisconsinF
0
21
WyomingF
0
1

9 jurisdictions score a full 100 (Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, Ohio, Utah). Twelve are graded F, of which 10 genuinely have no statute.

What this page does not claim to be

There is no published press freedom index for US states. Reporters Without Borders and Freedom House score countries, not states, and we did not invent a substitute — a composite of our own would be an opinion wearing a number. What is here is one published score, presented as its authors published it, and one public incident log, presented as a log.

Anti-SLAPP law is one input to press freedom and not the whole of it. Shield laws, public records law, and how courts actually behave all matter and are not scored here.

Grades and scores: the Institute for Free Speech's Anti-SLAPP Statutes: 2025 Report Card. Incident counts: the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, 2014–2026, used under CC BY 4.0. Both retrieved September 19, 2026. Incident counts since January 1, 2021 are shown on each state page. The score is IFS's own judgement and is not part of the FreedomRankings score. None of this is legal advice.