Word: libeler
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...press has learned from experience that there are two kinds of expensive libel suits: the ones it loses and the ones it wins. Even meritless complaints can lead to costly court battles, a threat that can inhibit even the wealthiest news organizations. Last week the U.S. Supreme Court gave the news media important relief with a ruling that encourages judges to dismiss unworthy suits before they go to trial...
...court's decision stemmed from a libel suit against the Investigator, a magazine published by muckraking Columnist Jack Anderson. In three articles published in 1981, the Investigator charged that the ultraconservative Liberty Lobby and its founder, Willis Carto, were neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic and racist. Carto and his organization sued Anderson and the magazine, claiming that they had used patently unreliable sources...
...friend of the press. Judge Scalia's view was supported by a now famous footnote in a 1979 Supreme Court ruling written by Chief Justice Warren Burger. In that case, Burger noted that in order to prove "actual malice"--the stiff standard public figures must meet to win a libel case--plaintiffs have the right to inquire into a reporter's "state of mind." Such a complex undertaking, stated the Chief Justice, "does not readily lend itself to summary disposition." Burger's aside sent a message to lower-court judges that led to a surge of libel trials...
...motion for summary judgment, judges must determine "whether the evidence presented is such that a reasonable jury might find that actual malice had been shown with convincing clarity." Specifically, said White, judges must assess such evidence in light of the stringent "clear and convincing" standard of the landmark 1964 libel case, New York Times Co. vs. Sullivan. The effect would be to make libel complaints more difficult to justify at the pretrial stage...
...will reverse all of that." Some First Amendment experts were afraid that the court had not given explicit enough criteria to lower courts, but the decision may have an impact beyond the strict letter of its language. "In some cases the melody is more important than the words," said Libel Attorney Bruce Sanford of Washington. Whether lower-court judges will face the music remains to be seen...