Two Santa Cruz residents are facing a $500,000 lawsuit for hosting a Web site that urges its readers to boycott advertisers of a conservative radio show, according to representatives from Public Citizen, a law firm representing the Web hosts.

Talk Radio Network of Grants Pass, Ore. filed suit against Thomas and Gunilla Leavitt, hosts of www.savagestupidity.com, and against hosts of two other Web sites critical of talk show host Michael Savage. The suit was filed in a U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Illinois on May 12.

"The Michael Savage Show" is syndicated nationally by the radio network. Savage also hosts MSNBC's "Savage Nation."

The radio network's lawsuit alleges that the Savage-critical Web site makes false and malicious statements about the conservative host. The legal filing says the site's attempts to interfere with the relationship of Talk Radio Network and its advertisers led the radio company to lose $100,000 in advertising from Culligan International Co., an Illinois-based company.

Lawyers say the Santa Cruz couple are just asserting their First Amendment rights and that the claims made in the lawsuit are faulty.

"The Leavitts have every right to criticize Savage and urge people to boycott his advertisers," said Paul Levy, an attorney at Public Citizen. "This is the wrong suit, filed in the wrong place. It should be dismissed."

The Leavitt's site "criticizes offensive and bigoted comments made by Savage, who rails against African-Americans, Hispanics, Jewish liberals, women, gays, liberals and a variety of other groups on his show, the 'Savage Nation,"' according to a Public Citizen news release.

Public Citizen maintains that the site's call for a boycott is a time-honored American tradition protected by the First Amendment. Lawyers for the Leavitts also say that libel claims made against their clients cannot be proven.

Lawyers for the Web hosts have argued that there is no basis for filing the suit against two Californians in an Illinois court and also say claims that the Web site illegally uses Savage's recordings are without solid support.

Talk Radio Network is also seeking to take away the Leavitts' ownership of the savagestupidity.com domain name.

Neither the Leavitts nor Talk Radio Network attorneys could be reached for comment.