Charles Dickens famously wrote in Oliver Twist: “the law is a ass—a idiot.”
There is little doubt that myriad of Long Island business owners would ruefully agree when trying to make sense of verdicts and legal decisions impacting their companies. It has been especially brought into focus amidst what this lawyer views as unreasonable criticism of Paramount’s recent $16 million settlement that resolved litigation alleging that then-presidential-candidate Donald Trump suffered from a falsely edited CBS news interview with Kamala Harris.
Why is it relevant to the Long Island business community?
Critics have labeled Trump’s lawsuit as “frivolous.” Yet one could argue that in an era when malicious and false allegations are being made hourly on social media, defamation claims are anything but “frivolous” in this nightmarish 21st century landscape. Of special legal importance to the now-settled Trump lawsuit is the U.S. Supreme Court’s lesser-known ruling decades ago in a case known as Masson v. New Yorker Magazine, Inc., which involved altered quotations and gave rise to special rules to determine whether “material alterations” qualify as protected speech.
As lawyers who litigate First Amendment cases know, the legal and constitutional bar for sustaining a defamation action involving either “public figures” or newsworthy subjects is so unreasonably high that false and damaging reporting regularly goes unchallenged, especially following the landmark Supreme Court decision in New...
Live on Inside Edition Live Caught on Camera New York Minute Action + Most Heartstopping Moments of 2019Watch Now - Caught on Camera Random Acts of Violence + Jaw-Dropping Action 4:59 - 5:29 PM PDT...