R&I – FS
A judge has ruled that a libel lawsuit former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin filed against the New York Times over a 2017 editorial should be thrown out because her lawyers failed to produce adequate evidence that the newspaper knew what it wrote about her was false or acted recklessly toward indications it was false.
The ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff Monday came as a Manhattan jury was deliberating on Palin’s suit, which claimed the Times and former editorial page editor James Bennet defamed her by unfairly linking her to a 2011 shooting spree in Arizona that killed six people and gravely wounded then-Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.).
Rakoff said he would continue to allow the jury to deliberate to a verdict, arguing that an appeal in the case seems inevitable and that the jury’s verdict could be useful to the appeals court. The judge’s announcement that he plans to dismiss the case came after a trial that lasted a little more than a week and as the jury was in its second day of deliberations. The jurors left Tuesday afternoon without reaching a verdict and are expected to return Wednesday morning.
Rakoff said in his ruling that during the trial, Palin’s attorneys failed to elicit enough evidence for a reasonable jury to conclude that the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee had met the “actual malice” standard the Supreme Court established for libel suits against public figures in the landmark 1967 ruling New York Times Co. v. Sullivan.
The judge said that standard, aimed at allowing robust public debate on issues of public importance, is open to question. However, he said it was not his role to revisit that rule.
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Article URL : https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/14/palin-new-york-times-judge-ruling-00008719