On December 19, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals effectively erased Michael Mann’s initial court victory in his defamation lawsuit against Mark Steyn, National Review, Rand Simberg and the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Here’s how Mark Steyn pithily summarizes the developments: 1. Dr Michael Mann’s lawyer, John Williams, filed a fraudulent complaint falsely representing his client as […]
Archive | Defamation
Who Qualifies as “Media” for Purposes of Texas Law Governing Appeals?
I wanted to pass along another brief the UCLA First Amendment Amicus Brief Clinic submitted last week. This one is on behalf of the bloggers at SCOTUSblog, the Supreme Court of Texas Blog, How Appealing, InstaPundit, and Power Line (3/4 of the bloggers there), in SEIU v. Professional Janitorial Service, Inc. (Tex. Sup. Ct.) (the […]
Son of Palestinian Authority President Loses Libel Lawsuit
The decision is Abbas v. Foreign Policy Group, LLC (D.D.C. Sept. 27, 2013); the defendants were the company that publishes Foreign Policy magazine and Jonathan Schanzer, the VP for Research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. An excerpt: Mr. Abbas contends that the Commentary poses two “libelous questions:” (1) “Are the sons of the […]
Libel Insurance and Online Commenters
Say you posted a comment online — on a site such as Yelp, on a blog, or elsewhere — and now someone is threatening to sue you for libel. What do you do? Well, if you have homeowner’s insurance (or renter’s insurance), look at your policy — such policies, to the surprise of many people, […]
Fifth Circuit Rejects Canadian Libel Judgment Against Blogger
By Eugene Volokh on September 6, 2013 2:53 pm in Defamation, Foreign and Religious Law in American Courts, Freedom of Speech
The case is Trout Point Lodge, Ltd. v. Handshoe (5th Cir. Sept. 5, 2013), and it applies the SPEECH Act, a federal statute that, among other things, provides: Notwithstanding any other provision of Federal or State law, a domestic court shall not recognize or enforce a foreign judgment for defamation unless the domestic court determines […]
Mann v. Steyn — Mann Wins Round One
Last year, the noted (and controversial) climate scientist Michael Mann sued National Review and the Competitive Enterprise Institute for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress for blog posts written by Mark Steyn and Rand Simberg and posted on National Review Online and CEI’s OpenMarket blog, respectively. I blogged about the case in these four posts: 1, 2, […]
Court Orders Father to Stop Publicizing Complaints About the Guardian Ad Litem in His Child Custody Case
Fortunately, the New Mexico Court of Appeals has reversed this order — at least unless and until the trial court finds that the material was libelous, something the trial court had not so far done — in Kimbrell v. Kimbrell (N.M. Ct. App. Mar. 13, 2013, though just put on Westlaw in the last day […]
Defamation, Exaggeration, and “the Worst Little Boy I’ve Ever Seen”
Here’s a newspaper article containing an allegedly defamatory statement by Gov. Sundquist: [Some death row inmates] accuse the governor of being “mean spirited” because he took away their satellite dish. Three inmates and four citizens have filed a federal lawsuit against the governor and correction officials, claiming the satellite dish was paid for by donors […]
The Med Express / James Amodio Affair — What Not to Do If You’re an Online Seller (or Its Lawyer)
Paul Alan Levy has two good posts on this incident (which involves the company that sells on eBay as “med_express_sales,” not the other companies that have unfortunately similar names). From the first, which describes how Med Express filed suit against a woman based on that woman’s true statement about a problem with the firm’s deliveries […]
Unconstitutional Prior Restraint Against Lifetime Movie About Murderer Christopher Porco
Tuesday, a New York trial judge temporarily restrained the Saturday Lifetime broadcast of a movie about murderer Christopher Porco; the judge accepted the plaintiff’s allegation that the movie was likely “fictionalized” and therefore likely constitutionally unprotected. But preliminary injunctions against alleged libel violate the First Amendment, because they are “prior restraints” — restraints on speech […]
State v. Brewington and Figurative Speech
Here’s the last portion of our State v. Brewington amicus brief: II. The Court of Appeals Erred in Concluding that Brewington’s Speech Was Knowingly False, an Error That Will Work Mischief in Future Defamation Cases To the extent that the Court of Appeals defended its decision by casting Brewington’s speech as a knowingly false statement […]
10 Years in Prison for Publishing Articles That Insulted the King of Thailand
So reports the Bangkok Post: The 10-year prison sentence handed down to Voice of Taksin editor Somyot Prueksakasemsuk for lese majeste crimes has prompted criticism from human rights groups worldwide…. [Somyot] was [convicted] of … publishing two articles in 2010 that were deemed insulting to the royal family…. The articles were written by former PM’s […]
Virginia Supreme Court Reverses Preliminary Injunction Against Alleged Libel
Public Citizen has details on the case, including the court documents. Here’s Public Citizen’s summary (paragraph break added): A contractor sued a woman who posted an unfavorable review of his services on Yelp and Angie’s List, alleging defamation in a number of respects, and sought a preliminary injunction. The trial judge held a preliminary injunction […]
Mann v. Steyn — CEI SLAPPs Back
By Jonathan H. Adler on December 20, 2012 11:44 am in Climate Change, Defamation, Freedom of Speech, Politicizing Science
Earlier this week, Rand Simberg and the Competitive Enterprise Institute replied to Michael Mann’s libel suit. Specifically, they filed a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim and, more interestingly, a special motion to dismiss under the District of Columbia’s Anti-SLAPP Act. As I noted here, Mann exposed himself to this motion by […]
Mann v. Steyn — The Defendants Respond
By Jonathan H. Adler on October 25, 2012 8:51 pm in Climate Change, Defamation, Freedom of Speech, Politicizing Science
On Monday, famed climate scientist Michael Mann filed suit against National Review and the Competitive Enterprise Institute over some allegedly defamatory blog posts. Now some of the defendants have responded. Here is CEI’s official response, and a legal analysis from their lawyer. Of note, while CEI refused to apologize for the initial blog post (which […]