Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder says only Congress, not the D.C. Council, has the power to pass laws like the anti-SLAPP statute that Washington City Paper and staff writer Dave McKenna recently sought to use to have Snyder’s lawsuit thrown out. Snyder also wants City Paper to pay for the cost of his response to our motion.

In a response to our motion, filed last night shortly before an 11:59 p.m. deadline, Snyder argues the anti-SLAPP law is unconstitutional, because the D.C. Council didn’t have the authority to pass it; that even if it is constitutional, it doesn’t apply in this case; that he’s going to win the lawsuit; and that our special motion to dismiss was frivolous.

“This motion was brought solely to delay these proceedings and to put pressure on Mr. Snyder to settle his claims,” the filing reads. “Defendants’ ‘Hail Mary’ should not be rewarded.”

City Paper and McKenna have asked D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman to throw out Snyder’s lawsuit, which we’ve argued was filed as “a pretext for punishing and silencing his critics.” A group of media and public interest organizations, as well as D.C. Councilmembers Mary Cheh (who wrote the anti-SLAPP law) and Phil Mendelson, have asked the judge to side with us.

The next hearing in the case hasn’t been scheduled yet.

Read Snyder’s filing here:

[scribd id=61461797 key=key-1p8a1015a4mtpmay8v66 mode=list]

Snyder also filed a motion to strike some of the exhibits Washington City Paper and McKenna filed. Read that motion here:

[scribd id=61471387 key=key-18xoz8gouil8666h161n mode=list]

Photo by Darrow Montgomery