City of Edgerton, Kansas v. Twente (Anti-SLAPP Dismissal of Municipal Suit Over Data Center Petition)
Johnson County District Judge Stephanie Goodenow dismissed the City of Edgerton, Kansas's lawsuit against residents Kimberly Twente and Carrie Schmidt over their citizen petition to ban high-impact data centers, ruling on September 3, 2026 that the city's suit violated the Kansas Public Speech Protection Act (the state's anti-SLAPP law). The ruling clears the way for the 208-signature petition to proceed toward a public vote and requires Edgerton to pay the defendants' legal expenses.
Why it matters
The ruling is a novel application of an anti-SLAPP statute against a municipal government itself, rather than a private plaintiff, and signals real litigation risk for other cities considering suits against citizen-led zoning petitions opposing data center development. It reinforces that recharacterizing a legislative zoning ordinance as merely administrative is unlikely to defeat citizen initiative rights.
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