A Los Angeles Superior Court judge threw out a defamation suit today (November 20) filed by a Korean fertility researcher against a scientist who wrote an opinion piece criticizing his work.

Judge James Dunn upheld a motion filed by the defendant, Bruce Flamm of the University of California,Irvine. Flamm's motion claimed that the lawsuit sought to stifle Flamm's criticism of Kwang Yul Cha's controversial 2001 study linking prayer to in vitro fertilization success.

In an email to The Scientist, Flamm described his elation at the suit against him being thrown out court. ''This is a great victory for science, peer review and academic freedom,'' Flamm wrote.

Cha filed the lawsuit against Flamm in August over a sentence Flamm wrote in an opinion piece in the March 15, 2007 issue of Ob. Gyn. News.

The lawsuit characterized Flamm's criticism of Cha's IVF-prayer study -- which started when the study was published -- as ''a bitter personal vendetta against Dr. Cha.''

Though Cha's attorneys insisted that the suit was in reference only to a single sentence, Flamm saw the suit as an attack on his right to criticize the work of other scientists.

In October, Flamm filed a motion to throw out the suit because it was an attack on his freedom of speech and constituted what is referred to in California law as a ''strategic lawsuit against public participation,'' or SLAPP. Judge Dunn upheld Flamm's ''anti-SLAPP'' motion, and so negated Cha's defamation suit.

According to Flamm, Cha has 60 days to appeal this decision. Cha's spokesperson did not have any response by the time this was posted.