A Butler County judge Thursday did not immediately rule on the dismissal of what an American Civil Liberties Union attorney says is an unfair lawsuit that robs a group of citizens of their First Amendment rights.

A hearing in which the ACLU argued the case should be dismissed was held Thursday morning before Judge Marilyn Horan.

Witold Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said a lawsuit brought by developer Dewey Homes and Investment Properties and a group of Middlesex Township property owners who have signed shale gas leases is an illegal SLAPP suit. The acronym stands for strategic lawsuit against public participation.

He said a group of Middlesex citizens challenged a decision by the township’s zoning hearing board to uphold a zoning ordinance approved by the township supervisors that would allow shale gas activities in most of the township.

The group of leaseholders and the developer subsequently filed a lawsuit against the citizens, claiming their challenge was meant to delay the Bob and Kim Geyer wells on Denny Road and in turn deprive the lease holders of their right to earn money from their properties.

Walczak said although the ACLU does not normally get involved in land use cases, he said the suit against the citizens is the definition of a SLAPP suit.

“They’ve been sued for standing up and trying to protect their families and children,” Walczak said. “This lawsuit is such a serious affront to the First Amendment that we had to get involved.”

Walczak said in court the challenge to the zoning amendment, which is a separate court proceeding being considered by county court Judge Michael Yeager and which has shut down Rex Energy’s development of the Geyer wells, should be considered by Horan in deciding whether to throw out the suit.

He also said case law shows the lawsuit should be dismissed as early in the process as possible to discourage other SLAPP suits.

Walczak said the citizens being sued are “chilled” by the SLAPP suit.

“It impacts anybody who would think about standing up and making themselves heard in front of a governmental agency,” Walczak said.

Attorney Ronald Amrhein, who represents the leaseholders and developer in the lawsuit before Horan, told the judge she should not consider the challenge before Yeager in making her decision because the other case has not yet reached the fact-finding stage and many claims are still alleged.

He said Horan would be remiss in dismissing the case at such an early stage without holding fact-finding sessions.

Amrhein said his clients want a jury trial.

“A large portion of the community are very upset with what these people are doing,” Amrhein said of the citizens group’s objection to the Geyer wells. “Leases have been signed, and permits issued (for the wells).”

More than 12 members of the Mars parent group against the Geyer well and residents against fracking in general attended the hearing.

After the hearing, Diane Sipe, chairman of the anti-fracking group Marcellus Outreach Butler, said if the developer and leaseholders win the suit, it will hurt democracy.

“We have the constitutional right to challenge something we believe is harmful to the community,” Sipe said, “and this suit seeks to deny us that right.”

Neither the developer nor any leaseholders who initiated the suit attended the hearing.

Horan did not give a time frame regarding when she would issue her ruling, but she said she would review the case law cited by both attorneys. That is expected to take at least a week.

The leaseholders who are suing the citizens group members and environmental groups are Mark Vinson, Matthew Vinson, Joseph Elm, Mark Gissendaner, Bradley Kress, Brian Kress, Albert and Charlotte McKee, Dean and Sharon Weigle, Ronald Molinaro and Jean Utz.

Those being sued are the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, the Clean Air Council, plus township residents David Denk, Jennifer Chomicki, Anthony Lapina and Joann Groman.

Adams Township resident Amy Nassif, who is a leader of the Mars parents group, was also named in the suit. She is represented by a separate attorney, who also asked Horan to throw the suit out.

Nassif is the only defendant in the case who attended the hearing, but she did not have a comment.