9th Circuit Issues a Blogger-Friendly First Amendment Opinion
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This case involves defamation claims brought by Kevin Padrick of Obisidian Finance Group against Crystal Cox. Obsidian (Padrick) was the Chapter 11 Trustee for Summit Accomodators, and Cox wrote a series of posts accusing Padrick and Obsidian of fraud, corruption, money-laundering, and other improper activities. Obsidian and Padrick sued. Cox, representing herself, raised some First Amendment defenses. The district judge found that a slew of the posts were figurative and hyperbolic, but allowed the case to move forward on the basis of a single post. With respect to this post, the district judge instructed the jury that Cox’s “intent or purpose” in publishing the statement and whether she knew that the statements were true or false were not elements of the claim. The case went to trial. At trial, Cox lost: $1.5 million for Padrick and $1 million for Obsidian). Cox appealed. (Check out this story by David Carr for some interesting background: “When Truth Survives Free Speech“.)
On appeal, the 9th Circuit reverses.
The framework for the level of fault necessary in a defamation suit was set by New York Times v. Sullivan and its progeny. The level of fault varies depending on private or public status of the plaintiff. While NYT v. Sullivan involved a public official and required a showing of actual malice, in Gertz v. Robert Welch the Court held that only negligence is required where the plaintiff is a private figure. Both of these cases impose some minimal fault requirement, and involved media defendants. The key question here, was whether Cox, as a blogger, was entitled to the benefit of these rules. The court says yes:
Read original articleThe protections of the First Amendment do not turn on whether the defendant was a trained journalist, formally affiliated with traditional news entities, engaged in conflict-of-interest disclosure, went beyond just assembling others’ writings, or tried to get both sides of the story. As the Supreme Court has accurately warned, a First Amendment distinction between the institutional press and other speakers is unworkable.
Tags: 9th Circuit Issues, Crystal Cox, First Amendment, Kevin Padrick, Obisidian Finance Group
