[EL] damages awarded for defamatory campaign ad

Mon Apr 9 11:11:29 PDT 2012

Actually it was 3 to 3 in the Wisc Supreme Court with Gableman  recused.  
Jim

In a message dated 4/9/2012 1:59:54 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
wmaurer at ij.org writes:

Yes, she did.  The  court split 4-1-4 on whether to strike the law down 
(with Chief Justice  Alexander concurring only because the law reached 
nondefamatory speech).   The Washington court’s reasoning was rejected by Chief 
Justice Abrahamson and  her cohorts in the Gableman case a few years back as 
well.   
From: Richard Winger  [mailto:richardwinger at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Monday, April 09, 2012 10:50  AM
To: EugeneVolokh; law-election at UCI.edu; Bill  Maurer
Subject: Re: [EL] damages awarded for defamatory campaign  ad 
Bill might have added (but he didn't; I guess he  wanted everyone to read 
the decision!)  that the Green Party  candidate who brought that lawsuit 
(after she was charged with saying  something factually untrue about her 
Democratic opponent) won her case  in the Washington State Supreme Court.

Richard  Winger
415-922-9779
PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca  94147

--- On Mon, 4/9/12, Bill Maurer <_wmaurer at ij.org_ (mailto:wmaurer at ij.org) > 
 wrote: 

From: Bill Maurer  <_wmaurer at ij.org_ (mailto:wmaurer at ij.org) >
Subject: Re: [EL]  damages awarded for defamatory campaign ad
To: "Volokh, Eugene"  <_VOLOKH at law.ucla.edu_ (mailto:VOLOKH at law.ucla.edu) 
>, "_law-election at UCI.edu_ (mailto:law-election at UCI.edu) " 
<_law-election at UCI.EDU_ (mailto:law-election at UCI.EDU) >
Date:  Monday, April 9, 2012, 10:34 AM 

There was a  case at the Washington Supreme Court, Rickert v. Public 
Disclosure  Commission, 168 P.3d 826, that addressed whether the state may make it 
a  campaign finance violation for statements that would meet the standards  
for a cause of action for libel or slander.   
Bill 

From:  _law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu_ 
(mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu)   
_[mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu]_ 
(mailto:[mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu])   On Behalf Of Volokh, Eugene
Sent: Monday, April 09,  2012 9:23 AM
To: _law-election at UCI.edu_ (mailto:law-election at UCI.edu) 
Subject:  Re: [EL] damages awarded for defamatory campaign  ad

As I mentioned, I don’t think there’s  any First Amendment problem with 
awarding libel damages for recklessly  or knowingly false statements of fact 
in an election campaign, given  New York Times v. Sullivan and later cases.  
But I do wonder  whether the verdict in this case was supportable.  For 
instance,  the plaintiffs apparently argued that the statements about “Bertrand’
s  company” must have referred to the small marketing companies that  
Bertrand owned, while in context it appears that a reasonable  viewer would have 
seen the ad as referring to the company that Bertrand  worked for.  Under 
the independent appellate review standard  set forth in Bose Corp. v. 
Consumers Union, an appellate court  might well reverse the judgment, concluding 
that the particular  statements in this case were either true or expressions of 
 opinion. 
Eugene Volokh 
UCLA School of Law 

On Mon, Apr  9, 2012 at 7:27 AM, Kieran Williams 
<_kierandwilliams at yahoo.com_ (mip://0ac3abf0/mc/compose?to=kierandwilliams@yahoo.com) > wrote: 

A jury has  awarded a candidate for the Iowa State Senate $231,000 in 
damages for  allegations made by his 2010 opponent in a 30-second attack ad; 
details  are _here_ 
(http://www.bleedingheartland.com/diary/5432/gop-state-senator-wins-defamation-case-over-2010-ad) . Note that the plaintiff who brought 
the suit did  win the race, albeit very narrowly. Does anyone know of 
similar recent  cases, in particular of any that did not get overturned? (I am not 
 involved in this case in any way - I'm just interested in the boundaries  
of protected campaign speech.)

Kieran Williams
Drake University
Des Moines, IA   50311

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