[janalsncm]

Free speech is an interface, the first amendment is an implementation. We can’t use them interchangeably. So when you say

> there is no free speech argument

You really mean there is no first amendment argument. There is still an abstract free speech argument.

Another example: SLAPP laws that effectively intimidate people into silence are a free speech issue but not a first amendment issue.

[semiquaver]

I was with you until the last paragraph. How do SLAPP laws intimidate people into silence? Their purpose is to combat the use of legal means to silence speech, so it seems the opposite is true.

Further, if SLAPP laws did burden speech, then that would be a first amendment issue since they are enacted by states which are bound by it.

[janalsncm]

Sorry, I meant SLAPPs themselves, not the laws against them. Oops.