“The truth deserves a level playing field, and Governor Palin looks forward to presenting her case to a jury that is ‘provided with relevant proffered evidence and [is] properly instructed on the law,’” an attorney for Palin said.
A federal appeals court has reinstated former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s defamation lawsuit against the New York Times, finding that a lower court erred in dismissing the claim before deliberating jurors could announce their decision.
Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president in 2008, has long maintained that the Times defamed her by publishing a 2017 editorial that blamed her for an act of political violence against then-Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords.
Although the Times later acknowledged that it made a mistake in linking Palin to the incident, the former Alaska governor said that the editorial damaged her reputation and her career.
Shane Vogt, an attorney representing Palin, told The Associated Press that his client is “very happy with today’s decision, which is a significant step forward in the process of holding publishers accountable for content that misleads readers and the public in general.”
“The truth deserves a level playing field, and Governor Palin looks forward to presenting her case to a jury that is ‘provided with relevant proffered evidence and [is] properly instructed on the law,’” Vogt said, citing part of the U.S. 2nd Circuit of Appeals’ ruling.
Palin’s lawsuit, notes The Associated Press, made it to trial before being dismissed by a Manhattan-based federal court in February of 2022.
But, even after dismissing the case on grounds that Palin had failed to establishment an element of “actual malice” in the Times’ editorial, U.S. District Judge S. Rakoff permitted the jurors to deliberate and return a verdict—a verdict that ultimately absolved the Times of liability.
Earlier this week, though, the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals said that Rakoff’s late-stage dismissal “improperly intruded on the province of the jury by making credibility determinations.” It also referenced “several major issues” that occurred at trial, including the “erroneous exclusion of evidence, and inaccurate jury instruction.”
Rakoff, the court indicated, also appears to have ignored facts that a “reasonable juror” could have found to Palin’s claim.
“The jury is sacrosanct in our legal system, and we have a duty to protect its constitutional role, both by ensuring that the jury’s role is not usurped by judges and by making certain that juries are provided with relevant proffered evidence and [are] properly instructed on the law,” the appeals court wrote.
“We therefore VACATE and REMAND for proceedings,” the panel said, “including a new trial, consistent with this opinion.”
A spokesperson for the New York Times has since said that the outlet finds the decision “disappointing,” but is confident that it will “prevail in a retrial.”
Sources
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