Whether state anti-SLAPP statutes apply in federal diversity cases

QUESTION PRESENTED Texas enacted the Texas Citizens Participation Act (TCPA”) to “encourage and safeguard the constitutional rights of persons to petition, speak freely, associate freely, and otherwise participate in government to the maximum extent permitted by law and, at the same time, protect the rights of a person to file meritorious lawsuits for demonstrable injury.” Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code Ann. § 27.002 (West 2015). Like other States’ anti-SLAPP (‘Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation”) statutes, it creates “a speedy [way] for resolving litigation that may impinge on a party’s exercise of th[ese] rights.” Klocke v. Watson, 936 F.3d 240, 244 (5th Cir. 2019). The question presented is: Whether under the doctrine of Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64 (1938), state anti-SLAPP statutes apply in federal diversity cases, as the First, Second, and Ninth Circuits hold, or do not apply, as the Fifth, Tenth, Eleventh, and D.C. Circuits hold.