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De Omnibus Dubitandum - Lux Veritas

Monday, August 17, 2020

Libel, Accountability Standards for Media May Be Due for Reexamination, Professor Says

By Mark Tapscott August 13, 2020 Updated: August 13, 2020

 When Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas concurred in February 2019 in denying Katherine McKee’s request for a review of her status as a “limited public figure,” he included an observation that shook the mainstream news media.  McKee, who had claimed comedian Bill Cosby sexually assaulted her years ago, sued him for libel after Cosby’s lawyer publicly accused her of dishonesty.

A lower federal court ruled against McKee, claiming that, as a limited public figure, she had failed to prove, as required by the 1964 Supreme Court decision of New York Times v. Sullivan, that Cosby’s lawyer knew his accusation was false but said it anyway.

Thomas, currently the high court’s longest-serving member, declared that federal courts “should reconsider the precedents that require courts to ask [if a plaintiff is a public figure] in the first place. New York Times and the Court’s decisions extending it were policy-driven decisions masquerading as constitutional law.”...........To Read More....

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