Section 6 First Amendment Requirements

• Library: Damages 2012

In 1964, the United States Supreme Court held that the First Amendment prohibits public official plaintiffs from recovering damages in a defamation action unless actual malice is established. N.Y. Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964). The Supreme Court subsequently expanded the actual malice requirement to actions brought by public figure plaintiffs. Curtis Publ’g Co. v. Butts, 388 U.S. 130 (1967).

Then, in Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323 (1974), the Court held that a private figure plaintiff...