SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds the following: 
(1) The freedom of speech and the press is en-
shrined in the First Amendment to the United 
States Constitution. 
(2) Free speech, the free exchange of informa-
tion, and the free expression of ideas and opinions 
are essential to the functioning of representative de-
mocracy in the United States. 
(3) The free expression and publication by jour-
nalists, academics, commentators, experts, and oth-
ers of the information they uncover and develop 
through research and study is essential to the for-
mation of sound public policy and thus to the secu-
rity of Americans. 
(4) The First Amendment jurisprudence of the 
Supreme Court, articulated in such precedents as 
New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964), 
and its progeny, reflects the fundamental value that 
Americans place on promoting the free exchange of 
ideas and information, requiring in cases involving 
public figures a demonstration of actual malice— 
that is, that allegedly defamatory, libelous, or slan-
derous statements about public figures are not mere-
ly false but made with knowledge of that falsity or 
with reckless disregard of their truth or falsity. 
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(5) Some persons are obstructing the free ex-
pression rights of Americans, and the vital interest 
of the American people in receiving information on 
matters of public importance, by first seeking out 
foreign jurisdictions that do not provide the full ex-
tent of free-speech protection that is fundamental in 
the United States and then suing Americans in such 
jurisdictions in defamation actions based on speech 
uttered or published in the United States—speech 
that is fully protected under First Amendment juris-
prudence in the United States and the laws of the 
several States and the District of Columbia. 
(6) Some of these actions are intended not only 
to suppress the free speech rights of journalists, aca-
demics, commentators, experts, and other individuals 
but to intimidate publishers and other organizations 
that might otherwise disseminate or support the 
work of those individuals with the threat of prohibi-
tive foreign lawsuits, litigation expenses, and judg-
ments that provide for money damages and other 
speech-suppressing relief. Such actions are inten-
tional tortious acts aimed at United States persons, 
even though the harmful conduct may have occurred 
extraterritorially. 
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(7) The governments and courts of some for-
eign countries have failed to curtail this practice, 
permitting lawsuits filed by persons who are often 
not citizens of those countries, under circumstances 
where there is often little or no basis for jurisdiction 
over the Americans against whom such suits are 
brought. 
(8) Some of the plaintiffs bringing such suits 
are intentionally and strategically refraining from 
filing their suits in the United States, even though 
the speech at issue was published in the United 
States, in order to avoid the Supreme Court’s First 
Amendment jurisprudence and frustrate the protec-
tions it affords Americans. 
(9) The Americans against whom such suits are 
brought must consequently endure the prohibitive 
expense, inconvenience, and anxiety attendant to 
being sued in foreign courts for conduct that is pro-
tected by the First Amendment, or decline to answer 
such suits and risk the entry of costly default judg-
ments that may be executed in countries other than 
the United States where those individuals travel or 
own property. 
(10) Journalists, academics, commentators, ex-
perts, and others subjected to such suits are suf-
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fering concrete and profound financial and profes-
sional damage for engaging in conduct that is pro-
tected under the United States Constitution and es-
sential to informing the American people, their rep-
resentatives, and other policymakers. 
(11) In turn, the American people are suffering 
concrete and profound harm because they, their rep-
resentatives, and other government policymakers rely 
on the free expression of information, ideas, and 
opinions developed by responsible journalists, aca-
demics, commentators, experts, and others for the 
formulation of sound public policy, including na-
tional security policy. 
(12) The United States respects the sovereign 
right of other countries to enact their own laws re-
garding speech, and seeks only to protect the First 
Amendment rights of Americans in connection with 
speech that occurs, in whole or in part, in the 
United States. 
SEC. 3. FEDERAL CAUSE OF ACTION. 
(a) CAUSE OF ACTION.—Any United States person 
against whom a lawsuit is brought in a foreign country 
for defamation on the basis of the content of any writing, 
utterance, or other speech by that person that has been 
published, uttered, or otherwise disseminated primarily in 
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the United States may bring an action in a United States 
district court specified in subsection (f) against any person 
who, or entity which, brought the foreign suit if the writ-
ing, utterance, or other speech at issue in the foreign law-
suit does not constitute defamation under United States 
law. 
(b) JURISDICTION.—The district court shall have 
personal jurisdiction under this section if, in light of the 
facts alleged in the complaint, the person or entity bring-
ing the foreign suit described in subsection (a) served or 
caused to be served any documents in connection with 
such foreign lawsuit on a United States person with assets 
in the United States against which the claimant in the 
foreign lawsuit could execute if a judgment in the foreign 
lawsuit were awarded. 
(c) REMEDIES.— 
(1) ORDER TO BAR ENFORCEMENT AND OTHER 
INJUNCTIVE
RELIEF.—If the cause of action set 
forth in subsection (a) is established, the district 
court shall order that any foreign judgment in the 
foreign lawsuit in question may not be enforced in 
the United States, including by any Federal, State, 
or local court, and may order such other injunctive 
relief that the court considers appropriate to protect 
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