An appeals court on Wednesday overturned a verdict that dismissed former right-wing icon Sarah Palin’s defamation lawsuit against the New York Timesgiving him the right to a new trial in this emblematic case of the debate on freedom of expression in the United States.
“We are disappointed with this decision. We are confident that we will win a new trial,” said a spokesperson for the New York TimesCharlie Stadtlander, in an email sent to AFP.
The case dates back to a June 2017 editorial in the prestigious New York daily newspaper which denounced gun violence after yet another shooting in the United States.
The newspaper linked another shooting in 2011, of Arizona Democratic congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, to an ad by a Sarah Palin support group that marked the victim’s constituency with a sign resembling a crosshairs.
The very next day, the New York Times had corrected its editorial, admitting that there was no evidence that the shooter who killed six people and seriously injured Gabrielle Giffords had been prompted to act by the ad, but the former Alaska governor, a leading figure in the conservative Tea Party movement in the late 2000s, sued the newspaper for defamation.
The trial in early 2022 was seen as a new test of the freedom of expression that protects newspapers against public figures in the United States, with the latter having to prove “actual malice” on the part of the news organization. A jury in a Manhattan civil court ultimately dismissed the former Republican vice presidential candidate’s case (2008), but a federal appeals court overturned that verdict on Tuesday.
She particularly criticizes Judge Jed Rakoff, who presided over the trial, for having made it known that he would dismiss Sarah Palin’s case, regardless of the jury’s decision.
