actual-malice
32 cases — ← All topics
| Case | Title | Lower Court | Docketed | Status | Flags | Tags | Question Presented |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25-770 | Alan M. Dershowitz v. Cable News Network, Inc. | Eleventh Circuit | 2025-12-31 | Pending | Response RequestedResponse Waived | actual-malice circuit-split defamation first-amendment media-liability summary-judgment | As the District Court explained, "Of course, Dershowitz said nothing of the kind[.]" App. 71a. The court was referring to how CNN defamed Professor Al… |
| 24-1320 | Centerline Logistics Corporation, et al. v. Inlandboatmen’s Union of the Pacific, et al. | California | 2025-06-27 | Denied | Response Waived | actual-malice anti-SLAPP defamation due-process first-amendment jury-trial | 1. Whether this Court should overturn Sullivan's actual malice standard. 2. Whether the Seventh Amendment's right to a jury trial is incorporated aga… |
| 24-1243 | Tri-Corp Housing, Inc. v. Robert Bauman | Wisconsin | 2025-06-05 | Denied | Response Waived | actual-malice defamation jury-trial legal-standard public-figure wisconsin-supreme-court | (1) When is a claimant an "involuntary public figure" within the meaning set forth in Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323, 94 S. Ct. 2997, 41 L.… |
| 24-7287 | Anthony Michael Branch v. Aidan T. Kearney, et al. | Massachusetts | 2025-05-27 | Denied | IFP | actual-malice defamation media-publications public-figure summary-judgment | 1. Whether a private individual who becomes the subject of defamatory online publications may be designated a "limited-purpose public figure" based so… |
| 24-829 | Steve Wynn v. The Associated Press, et al. | Nevada | 2025-02-04 | Denied | Amici (1)Response Waived | actual-malice anti-SLAPP defamation first-amendment public-figure seventh-amendment | In New York Times Co. v. Sullivan,1 this Court "overturn[ed] 200 years of libel law" to constitutionalize an actual-malice standard for public-officia… |
| 24A508 | Steve Wynn v. The Associated Press, et al. | Nevada | 2024-11-22 | Presumed Complete | actual-malice anti-slapp defamation first-amendment jury-trial new-york-times-v-sullivan | Question not identified. | |
| 24-543 | Nili N. Alai v. Law Offices of Mark B. Plummer, P.C., et al. | California | 2024-11-14 | Denied | actual-malice defamation due-process first-amendment public-figure res-judicata | 1. Whether failing to consider a public figure classification under Gertz and its progeny improperly lowers this Court's standard for defamation and v… | |
| 24-5917 | Myrna De Jesus v. Dignity Health Corporation | Ninth Circuit | 2024-11-05 | Denied | Relisted (2)IFP | actual-malice defamation private-citizen publication qualified-immunity slander-per-se | Whether the concepts of actual malice and excessive publication are required elements of defamation slander per se for a private citizen to prove that… |
| 23-1303 | Craig Malin v. Lee Enterprises, Inc., et al. | Iowa | 2024-06-13 | Denied | actual-malice civil-rights defamation due-process first-amendment free-speech jury-trial publication-law summary-judgment | As a global information network accessible by smartphones was science fiction, New York Times v. Sullivan federalized libel law in 1964. Variously cri… | |
| 23-747 | Marylin Pierre v. Attorney Grievance Commission of Maryland | Maryland | 2024-01-10 | Denied | Amici (1)Response Waived | actual-malice civil-rights disciplinary-proceedings due-process first-amendment free-speech judicial-discipline legal-ethics new-york-times-v-sullivan professional-conduct rules-of-professional-conduct | Does the actual malice test of New York Times v. Sullivan protect lawyers' First Amendment rights in disciplinary proceedings? |
| 23A386 | Marylin Pierre, et al. v. Attorney Grievance Commission of Maryland | Maryland | 2023-10-31 | Presumed Complete | actual-malice attorney-discipline first-amendment free-speech judicial-criticism new-york-times-v-sullivan | Question not identified. | |
| 22-1125 | Don Blankenship v. NBCUniversal, LLC, et al. | Fourth Circuit | 2023-05-18 | Denied | Amici (1)Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (3) | actual-malice constitutional defamation first-amendment media-liability public-figure summary-judgment | (1) whether the actual malice standard imposed on public figure plaintiffs in defamation cases should be replaced; and (2) whether the framework for s… |
| 22-906 | Alan Grayson v. No Labels, Inc., et al. | Eleventh Circuit | 2023-03-17 | Denied | Amici (3)Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (2) | actual-malice appellate-review circuit-split civil-procedure defamation first-amendment new-york-times-v-sullivan public-figure public-figures | 1. Should the "actual malice" standard for state law defamation claims by "public figures" imposed by New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (19… |
| 22-591 | Donald V. Watkins, et al. v. Matrix, LLC, et al. | Alabama | 2022-12-27 | Denied | Response Waived | actual-malice civil-rights defamation due-process first-amendment free-speech presumed-damages public-figure summary-judgment | 1. Whether the Alabama Courts' grant and affirmance of a summary judgment for Respondents in a state law defamation case conflicts with this Court's d… |
| 22-137 | BYD Company Ltd. v. Alliance for American Manufacturing, et al. | District of Columbia | 2022-08-11 | Denied | Response Waived | actual-malice civil-rights defamation discovery first-amendment free-speech pleading-standard pleading-standards public-figure reckless-disregard | New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964), St. Amant v. Thompson, 390 U.S. 727 (1968), and Harte-Hanks Communications, Inc. v. Connaughton, … |
| 22-29 | Richelle D. Wallace v. City of Hampton, Virginia, et al | Virginia | 2022-07-11 | Denied | actual-malice constitutional-interpretation curtis-publishing-co-v-butts defamation first-amendment free-speech libel-law new-york-times-v-sullivan public-figure | New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964) federalized a large swath of libel law holding that the First Amendment mandates proof of actual malic… | |
| 21-1580 | MyPillow, Inc. v. US Dominion, Inc., et al. | District of Columbia | 2022-06-22 | Denied | actual-malice collateral-order-doctrine defamation first-amendment free-speech interlocutory-appeal jurisdictional-appeal new-york-times-standard | A defamation lawsuit has been filed by a for profit corporation ("Dominion") whose machines tabulated ballots in 28 States in the 2020 Presidential el… | |
| 21-1518 | BYD Company Ltd. v. Vice Media LLC | Second Circuit | 2022-06-02 | Denied | actual-malice defamation discovery-rights first-amendment iqbal pleading-standard public-figure twombly | New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964), St. Amant v. Thompson, 390 U.S. 727 (1968), and Harte-Hanks Communications, Inc. v. Connaughton, … | |
| 21-7042 | Craig Nelsen v. Southern Poverty Law Center | Eighth Circuit | 2022-02-02 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | actual-malice constitutional-protection defamation diversity-jurisdiction first-amendment free-speech public-figure summary-judgment | I. Whether the US Court for the 8th Circuit 1] wrongly allowed the District Court's improper statement of a Missouri Supreme Court ruling, which held—… |
| 21-1030 | Peter Brimelow v. The New York Times Company | Second Circuit | 2022-01-21 | Denied | Response Waived | actual-malice civil-rights defamation due-process first-amendment free-speech government-policy media-entity media-liability new-york-times-standard race-intelligence-crime | Whether the Sullivan Malice rule should be abandoned, especially where it serves to spare government policy from criticism and shelters a powerful med… |
| 21-839 | Thomas H. Oehmke v. Patrick Andrew Guinan | Michigan | 2021-12-07 | Denied | Response Waived | actual-malice civil-rights constitutional-protection defamation first-amendment free-speech malicious-reporting qualified-privilege | Qualified Privilege for FBI Crime Tips Under the First Amendment, should there be a qualified privilege (instead of absolute immunity ) for relator… |
| 21-802 | Coral Ridge Ministries Media, Inc., dba D. James Kennedy Ministries v. Southern Poverty Law Center | Eleventh Circuit | 2021-11-30 | Denied | Amici (4)Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (14) | actual-malice common-law curtis-publishing-co-v-butts defamation first-amendment free-speech public-figure reputational-harm sullivan | In New York Times v. Sullivan, this Court upended common law defamation jurisprudence creating a more-often-than-not insurmountable bar for a public f… |
| 21-394 | D. F. Pace v. Emily Baker-White, et al. | Third Circuit | 2021-09-13 | Denied | Response Waived | actual-malice civil-rights defamation due-process first-amendment free-speech internet-speech new-york-times-sullivan standing technological-advances | 1. Whether the Court should revisit the "actual malice" doctrine of New York Times Co. v. Sullivan and its progeny in light of the advent of technolog… |
| 21-343 | Michelle J. Smith v. Nicholas French, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Martin D. French, Deceased | Massachusetts | 2021-09-02 | Denied | Response Waived | actual-malice child-athletes defamation first-amendment fourteenth-amendment libel preemption public-figure sports-governance | In Gertz v. Robert Welch Inc 418 US 323(1974), Justice Powell, • t in reference to Defamation/Libel claims of a private individual concerning an issue… |
| 21-121 | Christiana Tah, et al. v. Global Witness Publishing, Inc., et al. | District of Columbia | 2021-07-28 | Denied | Amici (1) | actual-malice civil-rights defamation first-amendment free-speech inference-of-intent pleading-standard pleading-standards public-figure public-plaintiff | Whether a complaint by a public plaintiff alleging defamation sufficiently pleads actual malice, in the absence of direct evidence, by presenting deta… |
| 20-1637 | Janice Dickinson v. Ryan Seacrest Productions, Inc., et al. | Ninth Circuit | 2021-05-25 | Denied | Response Waived | actual-malice defamation first-amendment lanham-act new-york-times-v-sullivan public-figure rogers-test rogers-v-grimaldi | Whether a defendant who willfully creates a false narrative about a public figure that is marketed to the public as a true story, for the intentional … |
| 20-1588 | Michael Konowicz, aka Michael Phillips, et al. v. Jonathan P. Carr, et al. | Third Circuit | 2021-05-17 | Denied | actual-malice commercial-speech constitutional-interpretation defamation first-amendment fourteenth-amendment free-speech lanham-act | 1. Whether the Court should revisit the fifty-year old "actual malice" doctrine of New York Times Co. v. Sullivan and its progeny to determine if the … | |
| 20-1063 | Shkelzën Berisha v. Guy Lawson, et al. | Eleventh Circuit | 2021-02-04 | Denied | Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (4) | actual-malice constitutional-law curtis-publishing-co-v-butts defamation first-amendment libel libel-law mckee-v-cosby public-figure | The question presented is whether this Court should overrule the "actual malice" requirement it imposed on public figure defamation plaintiffs. |
| 20-693 | Mikhail Fridman, et al. v. Orbis Business Intelligence Limited, et al. | District of Columbia | 2020-11-19 | Denied | Response Waived | actual-malice anti-slapp anti-slapp-act defamation due-process herbert-v-lando public-figure | 1. When the District of Columbia Anti-SLAPP Act is applied to a lawsuit, the plaintiff is required to produce legally sufficient evidence for his clai… |
| 19-1247 | Judson A. Lovingood v. Discovery Communications, Inc., et al. | Eleventh Circuit | 2020-04-27 | Denied | Response Waived | actual-malice defamation entertainment entertainment-media first-amendment free-speech public-official sworn-testimony | In N.Y. Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964) this Court announced that in defamation cases involving a public official/public figure, the Plaint… |
| 18-8979 | Lisa Jacobs v. Lorraine MacDonald, et vir | New Hampshire | 2019-04-24 | Denied | IFP | actual-malice constitutional-rights defamation defamation-damages first-amendment negligence-per-se presumptive-damages punitive-damages | Whether enhanced compensatory damages in connection with an action for negligence per se requires proof of "actual malice" consistent with St. Amant v… |
| 18-584 | Angela Engle Horne v. WTVR, LLC, dba CBS6 | Fourth Circuit | 2018-11-05 | Denied | Response Waived | actual-malice civil-rights constitutional-standard defamation first-amendment free-speech media-law public-figure public-official sullivan | 1. Whether this Court should overrule New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964). 2. Whether even if this Court elects not overrule Sullivan in … |