Jury Finds New York Times Did Not Libel Sarah Palin
(AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (R) lost her defamation lawsuit against the New York Times on Tuesday. A federal jury in Manhattan found the Times did not libel Palin in a 2017 editorial on gun control. The jury verdict is the second loss for Palin in the case after an appeals court threw out the 2022 verdict, which also found in favor of the Times.
Palin sued the Times and its former opinion editor, James Bennet, in June of 2017 over an article that erroneously linked her political action committee to the deadly Tucson, Arizona, shooting that severely injured then-Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) and killed six others. The Times quickly corrected the article and included a note saying it previously “incorrectly stated that a link existed between political rhetoric and the 2011 shooting.”
The Times’ lawyer Felicia Ellsworth argued to the jury that “To win this case, Governor Palin needs to prove that the New York Times and James Bennet did not care about the truth. There has not been one shred of evidence showing anything other than an honest mistake.”
Palin’s lawyer Ken Turkel argued that the editorial led to death threats against Palin and years of harassment. “This is not an honest mistake about a passing reference. For her, it was a life-changer,” he told the jury.
Reuters’ Luc Cohen explained the stakes in the case go far beyond just Palin and the Times. “The case had long been viewed by Palin and other conservatives as a possible vehicle to overturn the 1964 U.S. Supreme Court landmark New York Times v. Sullivan,” Cohen noted, adding, “In that case, the court said that to win a defamation case, a public figure must demonstrate that an offending statement was made with ‘actual malice,’ meaning with knowledge it was false or with reckless disregard as to whether it was false.”
The overturning of the New York Times v. Sullivan would fundamentally change libel law in the U.S. and could lower the bar to win lawsuits against publications or individuals.
This is a developing story and has been updated.
