Photo by anartist on flickr.

In the District, it’s the owner of the football-team-that-shall-not-be-named that’s suing a local publication. But for the District’s northern-most urban neighbor, though, it’s an elected official that went after a journalist.

The Baltimore City Paper reported yesterday that after months of waiting, a libel and defamation lawsuit filed by Baltimore City Coun­cilmem­ber Belinda Conaway against a Baltimore Examiner writer was dismissed in court. The lawsuit tageted writer Adam Meis­ter, who had claimed in March — with official documentation to back him up, no less — that Conaway didn’t actually live in the district she represented. Instead of trying to prove otherwise, Conaway sued Meister for $21 million.

Before a motions hearing yesterday, Conaway’s lawyer announced that she was dropping the lawsuit, claiming that they had not actually seen the documents that Meister had posted backing his claim that the councilwoman lived in Baltimore County instead of Batimore City. (Controversies over where city officials live have certainly come up in the District, though our local councilmembers haven’t ever been accused of living beyond the city limits.)

Had the suit not been dismissed, Meister’s defense was proceeding down the same road as the Washington City Paper is with Dan Snyder — essentially, both Conoway and Snyder were and are using frivolous lawsuits to silence critics and intimidate opponents. Both Meister and the City Paper have argued that they’re facing SLAPP lawsuits, or strategic lawsuits against public participation. In short, SLAPP suits seek to censors critics with the threat of costly and time-consuming litigation. (Why Conaway would have risked such a strategy with a writer for a newspaper owned by a billionaire is beyond us, though.)

Meister may have moved on, but the City Paper still has to deal with Snyder. And in a twist that’s certain to further endear Snyder to District residents, the Post’s Erik Wemple reports that Snyder’s legal team is arguing that the city’s new anti-SLAPP law is null and void because, well, only Congress can pass laws regulating activity and conduct in local courts. First, he lost fans of the First Amendment, and now he’s losing advocates for D.C. voting rights. Snyder needs only to kick a red panda to really make himself any more Grinch-like around these parts.

Ultimately, the lesson still seems to be lost on many in positions of power these days — these lawsuits likely cost more in public perception than anything they stand to gain if won in court.