UPDATED: It’s Actually Not Pointless…
Some people are blogging about that letter from Palin’s attorney being “odd”, or “pointless”. Ask your neighborhood law professor: there’s nothing even close to “wacky” about it.
Contrary to what some people might believe, public figures are not barred from suing for defamation; and there’s nothing inconsistent with First Amendment free speech rights about this either under New York Times v. Sullivan.
The standard of liability for defamation is higher in the case of a public figure, but it’s not impossible to meet. For example, any blogger with any level of readership who stated falsely that Sarah Palin is being investigated for corruption – with knowledge of it being false or a reckless disregard for whether it was true or not – may be found liable, generally.
And if I remember well, the plaintiff just needs clear and convincing evidence of the above. Fairly low evidentiary threshold [Low?? Only if you compare it to "beyond a reasonable doubt" --ed. True. "Clear and convincing" is actually as high as it gets in civil litigation. You better hope none of your law school professors are reading! --ed. Tell me about it...]
Generally, you can call Sarah Palin names all day long, but you can’t make certain statements about her without engaging in defamation. Free Speech rights are – after all – not absolute, not even for bloggers.
Sarah’s revenge? Maybe. I doubt her lawyer is going to sue everyone they can. They’ll go after deep pockets. But bottom line, some folks are definitely gonna get served, homie…with a summons and a complaint.
UPDATE: Dan Riehl doesn’t see Palin filing any lawsuits. To be clear, I didn’t mean to say that a lawsuit is imminent, but that in the measure that Palin has a case she certainly can sue and might even prevail. A defamatory statement against a public figure is actionable, sometimes even if couched in terms of rumor or opinion. As you learn to say in law school: “It all depends”.
On the other hand, many attorneys who represent celebrities do bluff about filing this sort of lawsuit against tabloids and glossy celebrity magazines all the time. But they are all bark and no bite because they really don’t have a case.
