Free Speech, Justice

A Sigh Of Relief As The Sarah Palin Lawsuit Gets Tossed

OMG, something NORMAL happened.

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(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

I am of the opinion that the most frightening recent attack on the First Amendment came not from Millennials or even Nazis. It came when a rich guy decided that he wanted to sue a major publication into the ground and succeeded. The right of rich people to have only the press they decide is worth having is a reoccurring problem across all societies who value a free press. But the Gawker lawsuit really put a chill up my spine.

So when Sarah Palin sued the New York Times for a de minimis error in its coverage of Jared Lee Loughner, I didn’t really know what to expect. Palin is a public person, the Times corrected the mistake, no malice, not foul.

But Peter Theil defeated Gawker and Donald Trump hates the New York Times and honestly who knows what terrible thing these people will succeed at next. Should Sarah Palin have prevailed against the New York Times? No, of course not. But the way things “should” work stopped working a while ago.

Yesterday, Judge Jed Rakoff, thankfully injected a sense of normalcy into the world. He tossed Palin’s lawsuit. From NBC:

The written ruling by Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan said the lawsuit seeking unspecified damages “fails on its face to adequately allege actual malice.”

“What we have here is an editorial, written and rewritten rapidly in order to voice an opinion on an immediate event of importance, in which are included a few factual inaccuracies somewhat pertaining to Mrs. Palin that are very rapidly corrected,” the judge said. “Negligence this may be; but defamation of a public figure it plainly is not.”

Thank Christ. “[A]ctual malice” is still a thing. We don’t all have to be Alt-Right media. A “CORRECTION” is still a responsible thing to do, not an admission of weakness to the Infowars crowd.

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Once again, it’s the third branch of government which is still showing up to work.

Judge Rejects Sarah Palin Lawsuit Against The New York Times [NBC News]

Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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