Can we disagree without being disagreeable? How about respecting freedom of speech?

To me, these are bedrock principles. I would never sue someone to shut them up. I might say they’re wrong—actually, I’ve been known to do that. OCPA works hard to convince people that freedom is better than enslavement.

Sadly, some people don’t think that way.

Last week, OCPA got sued. They want to shut us up. Here’s what happened.

Back in March, Chad Richison, the owner of Paycom, sent an open letter to Gov. Kevin Stitt calling for state-wide shutdowns of many businesses. In an article, we mentioned the letter and even linked to it. It’s news, right?

Now Richison, using his company, is suing OCPA alleging that we defamed his character. He says Paycom is losing business because we told the truth. Again, we linked his full letter—his own words!

Maybe it’s like my mother used to say: “Sometimes, the truth hurts.”

You might remember when OCPA protected free speech by stopping a state agency from regulating your conversations about legislation. Maybe you signed the petition that I delivered to those Commissioners?

Freedom of speech is a basic American right. Oklahoma actually has a law against filing frivolous lawsuits to stop freedom of speech—it’s called the Oklahoma Citizens Participation Act (or the OCPA law—how about that!).

Usually the strategy behind lawsuits like this isn’t really to win in court, but just to harass us and drain our resources. They want to silence us, to stop us from standing up for working Oklahomans, for taxpayers, for small businesses, for people hoping to get back to work.

Here is my promise to you: OCPA will not stop. We will relentlessly stand for free enterprise, limited government, individual initiative, and personal responsibility.

OCPA has the facts and law on our side, and we won’t be intimidated.