The Supreme Court declined to take lawyer Alan Dershowitz‘s appeal of his defamation lawsuit against CNN.
A judge had tossed out Dershowitz’s $300 million lawsuit against the network, over its coverage of remarks he made during President Donald Trump‘s first impeachment trial in 2020. Dershowitz had argued that the network commentary on his remarks made it seem as if he held that the president could be “immune from impeachment.” He claimed that network falsely painted him as someone who had “lost his mind.”
The case presented the possibility of the Supreme Court reexamining its landmark case New York Times vs. Sullivan, the 62-year-old standard by which courts weigh defamation claims, putting the burden of proof on public figures to prove that the media engaged in actual malice, not mere falsity. A federal appeals court rejected the effort to change that standard, writing in 2023, “Out of respect for unanimous Supreme Court precedent, and the press freedoms that played a critical role in securing the civil rights many in this country hold dear, judges should reconsider their calls for the Supreme Court to overrule Sullivan.”
In a dissent to the high court’s decision not to hear Dershowitz’s case, Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Neal Gorsuch wrote, “The ‘actual malice’ standard for public figures ‘bears ‘no relation to the text, history, or structure of the Constitution.’”
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The high court also refused Donald Trump’s effort to hear his appeal of a $5 million jury verdict in writer E. Jean Carroll’s case. The jury in 2023 found that Trump was liable for sexual abuse and defamation.
More to come.