New York — A U.S. federal jury on Tuesday ruled against Sarah Palin in her lawsuit accusing The New York Times of defaming her in a 2017 editorial that incorrectly linked her to a mass shooting, after the presiding judge said he would dismiss the case regardless of the verdict.
Palin, the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican U.S. vice presidential candidate, is expected to appeal.
The case in Manhattan federal court is considered a major test of longstanding libel protections for American media.
A landmark 1964 U.S. Supreme Court precedent, New York Times v Sullivan, established an “actual malice” standard for public figures like Palin to prove defamation, meaning that media knowingly published false information or had a reckless disregard for the truth.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan said Palin had not met that “very high” standard, even as he faulted the Times for “very unfortunate editorializing” in the editorial.
He said letting the jurors reach a verdict could avoid complications should Palin appeal.
Palin viewed the case in biblical terms, testifying on February 10 that she considered herself the underdog to the Times’ Goliath.
She sued the Times and its former editorial page editor James Bennet over a June 14, 2017, editorial that incorrectly linked her to a January 2011 mass shooting in Arizona that killed six people and wounded Democratic U.S. congresswoman Gabby Giffords.
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