A three-judge federal appeals court on Wednesday overturned a 2022 ruling that dismissed former Alaska governor and right-wing icon Sarah Palin’s defamation lawsuit against The New York Times.
The appeals court decision revives the case, and Palin will get a new trial. The New York Times expressed disappointment in the decision, but said it was confident it could win in court again. “This decision is disappointing,” said Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesman for the newspaper. “We are confident we will prevail in a new trial,” it said. on the daily’s websiteSarah Palin welcomed the decision by posting an article from the New York Post on X.
Questions about freedom of expression
While the decision opens the way for a new trial between the two parties, it also raises important questions about freedom of expression in the United States, the famous “freedom of speech” which is included in the American Constitution (the 1st Amendment).
To better understand this whole story, we have to go back to June 2017, when the New York Times published an editorial. The newspaper linked a 2011 shooting in Arizona that seriously injured Democratic congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords to an ad run by a Sarah Palin support group. The ad showed Giffords’s constituency marked with a symbol that looked like a crosshairs, suggesting a possible incitement to violence.
Defamation lawsuit
But the day after the publication, the New York Times corrected its text, acknowledging that there was no evidence that the 2011 shooter had been influenced by this ad. Despite this correction, Sarah Palin decided to sue the newspaper for defamation, arguing that this publication had damaged her reputation.
The trial, which took place in Manhattan in early 2022, attracted attention because it was seen as a test of press freedom in the United States. Indeed, to win a defamation case, public figures must prove not only that the information published was false, but also that it was disseminated with “actual malice,” that is, with knowledge or with deliberate disregard for the truth.
A first judge too biased?
The jury in the 2022 trial ultimately rejected Palin’s claim, finding that she failed to prove “actual malice.” But now the federal appeals court has overturned that verdict, criticizing Judge Jed Rakoff, who presided over the trial.
The judge allegedly breached his duty of impartiality by indicating before the jury deliberated that he intended to dismiss Sarah Palin’s complaint, regardless of the jury’s decision. This statement was deemed improper and ultimately led to the verdict being overturned. However, the appeals court clarified that Judge Jed Rakoff could preside over the trial again.
“We are confident that the judge will adhere to the principle of complete impartiality, and the appearance of it, in the exercise of his future judicial responsibilities in this case,” they wrote.