Putlizer Prize-winning journalist Anthony Lewis passed away last week at the age of 85. Lewis famously published Make No Law in 1991 about the Supreme Court case New York Times v. Sullivan and how it revolutionized American libel law. While most well known for establishing the actual malice standard in defamation suits about public officials/figures, the facts of New York Times v. Sullivan also show that it was what we would refer to today as a SLAPP.
In 1960, The New York Times ran a full-page advertisement that was soliciting funds to defend Martin Luther King, Jr. against an Alabama perjury indictment. Among other things, the advertisement described actions against civil rights protesters, some of which involved police officers in Alabama. The advertisement stated:
“They [Alabama State Police] have arrested [King] seven times . . .”
However, at that point Dr. King had only been arrested four times. So while the gist of the advertisement was true, some of the particulars were inaccurate. And although Montgomery Public Safety commissioner L.B. Sullivan was not named in the advertisement, he considered this minor inaccuracy to be personally defamatory by virtue of his position and duty to supervise the police department.
Sullivan filed a libel action against the newspaper and four black ministers who were listed as endorsers of the advertisement. The Supreme Court of the United States held that the First Amendment protects the publication of all statements, even false ones, about the conduct of public officials except when statements are made with ‘actual malice’. Under this new standard, Sullivan was unable to show that The New York Times knew the statements were false or that they acted with reckless disregard for the truth, and therefore the case was dismissed.
Throughout the case, The New York Times maintained that the case was a SLAPP (though not referred to by that term), brought solely to intimidate news organizations and prevent them from reporting on the newsworthy actions of public employees in the South. Because there were no federal or state anti-SLAPP laws in place at the time, and therefore The New York Times was unable to invoke any anti-SLAPP protections, and thus they were dragged through the courts for four years and not able to recover their attorneys’ fees.
Make No Law thoroughly discusses the profound impact that New York Times v. Sullivan had on what newspapers, and ordinary citizens, can print and say. The Philadelphia Enquirer called the book “a riveting detailed account . . . [Make No Law] is nothing less than a comprehensive history of free speech in America.”
CASP is grateful for Mr. Lewis’ contributions to strengthening free speech in the United States, and we are honored to help continue the work of protecting First Amendment rights by fighting SLAPPs in California.
Read the New York Times’ obituary for Mr. Lewis here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/
Read Christopher Lydon’s moving and intimate tribute here:
http://www.radioopensource.
And read about how Lewis himself influenced history here:
http://www.propublica.org/