Word: public
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...more than a decade, the U.S. Supreme Court has been trying to balance the public's right to know and the individual's right to protect his reputation. The court did not want to stop people who had been defamed from suing for libel. But at the same time, it wanted to make sure that the risk of costly libel suits would not prevent the press from publishing stories of public interest. So, in a line of cases going back to New York Times vs. Sullivan in 1964, the court gradually worked out a compromise: it made...
Deciding that someone is a public figure is easy enough if he is running for office or commenting on a nightly news show. But what if an otherwise obscure person is unwillingly caught up in a public controversy? Does he too become a public figure? Last week the Supreme Court answered...
Both Hutchinson and Wolston were declared to be public figures by lower courts, and both libel suits were summarily dismissed. But the high court reversed those decisions. Neither man had "thrust" himself into a public controversy in order to affect its outcome, ruled the court...
Mere involvement in a newsworthy event, it said, does not automatically make someone a public figure. The court also rejected Senator Proxmire's argument that he was insulated from libel suits by the Constitution, which states that "for any speech or debate in either House," members of Congress "shall not be questioned in any other place." Congressmen cannot be held liable for what they say on the floor of Congress, but the court held that they can be for their newsletters and press releases...
...footnote in the Hutchinson decision also cautioned judges against automatically throwing out libel cases brought by clear-cut public figures. The defendant's state of mind-the key element in actual malice-"does not readily lend itself to summary disposition," wrote Chief Justice Warren Burger. Just two months ago, the high court ruled in Herbert vs. Lando that libel plaintiffs can probe a reporter's state of mind. This may raise questions of fact that only a jury, not a judge, can decide...