A group of 40 media organizations, including The New York Times and The Washington Post, have filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit urging them to allow civil litigants to use Texas’ Anti-SLAPP statute to protect themselves against defamation claims filed in federal—not only state—courts.

The issue was raised in Van Dyke v. Retzlaff, a bitter fight between a lawyer and his online critic. Denton attorney Jason Van Dyke filed a $100 million lawsuit against Thomas Christopher Retzlaff in a state district court. In that lawsuit, Van Dyke claimed he was fired from a law firm because Retzlaff’s internet postings accused him of being a “Nazi” and “white supremacist.”