Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on Tuesday called for reconsideration of the high court’s landmark decision making it more difficult for public officials to claim defamation — as the court turned down a request from a Bill Cosby accuser.
The panel rejected the appeal from Kathrine McKee, an actress who has accused the disgraced funnyman of raping her in a Detroit hotel room in 1974.
Mckee filed her suit against Cosby — who is serving three to 10 years behind bars for drugging and molesting another woman in Pennsylvania — after his lawyer Martin Singer called her a liar in a press release.
Two lower courts have ruled Singer’s words didn’t rise to defamation, concluding that McKee was a “limited purpose public figure.”
While he agreed with the ruling, Thomas also called for the court to reconsider the high standard used in defamation cases.
In his own decision, Thomas wrote that he and his colleagues should review the landmark 1964 ruling New York Times v. Sullivan — which makes it difficult for public figures to win defamation lawsuits.
Under the current law, public figures must prove that something false has been said about them, that the statement hurt their reputation, and that the person making the statement intended “actual malice.” In this context, “actual malice” means the plaintiff must be able to show that the person making the statement knew it was false, or acted with a “reckless disregard.”
“We should not continue to reflexively apply this policy-driven approach to the Constitution,” Thomas wrote. “Instead, we should carefully examine the original meaning of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. If the Constitution does not require public figures to satisfy an actual-malice standard in state-law defamation suits, then neither should we.
“The states are perfectly capable of striking an acceptable balance between encouraging robust public discourse and providing a meaningful remedy for reputational harm. We should reconsider our jurisprudence in this area,” Thomas wrote.
President Trump has previously groused that current libel laws make it difficult to prevail in slander suits, and vowed last month to make it easier to sue news organizations.
Cosby, 81, was convicted last year at retrial for the 2004 attack on Andrea Constand, and sentenced to prison time.
The fallen funnyman was moved earlier this month to general population, where his spokesman claims Cosby is having an “amazing” time.
With Post wires
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